Russell 'absolutely ready' to be F1 champion

Mercedes driver George Russell is setting his sights high for his second year with the team, insisting that he is 'absolutely ready' to make a challenge for the world championship in 2023.

Russell made his Formula 1 debut with Williams in the 2019 Australian Grand Prix and spent three seasons at Grove before finally earning promotion to Mercedes at the start of 2022.

This year has seen him finish on the podium eight times, including his maiden F1 win in the Brazil Grand Prix last month, to finish two places ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the final drivers standings.

• Read also: Wolff says Russell schooling at Williams 'maybe a year too long'

"I guess if you told me that at the start of the year, I would have been extraordinarily happy," Russell said. "If you beat Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes, most of the time that means you [are] a world champion!"

The former GP3 and Formula 2 champion now believes he's ready to take a shot at the F1 title, if Mercedes can get on top of the problems with their car that hampered this year's campaign.

"I feel absolutely ready to win a world championship," Russell told Sky Sports F1. "I've felt ready for a couple of years now.

"Having this season next to Lewis has been huge for me personally to learn some of the little details: how to get more out of my car, more out of my team, and extracting everything out of the package when it truly matters.

While he can take pride in his personal achievements this year, which saw him finish in the top five for the first eight races of the year and earn his first pole, Russell acknowledged that winning the title would take a lot more.

"Obviously I could take the positives away from the season, but I'm not going to celebrate finishing P4 in the championship.

"I'm going to celebrate winning the race in Brazil, because that was a huge achievement for myself and the whole team. But the fact is we're all here to win, and we're here to win world championships.

"So we've not done a perfect job this season," he admitted. "We've had a relatively clean and smooth season with the car and package we've had.

"But to the standards this team set, some standards I set myself... it's not good enough," he said. "We need to go on next year and give it more."

And in preparation for that, Russell is going to be giving his all when it comes to training over the off-season.

"I'm definitely going to have a really strong winter," he said. "I'm going to work really hard with my team.

"Every single person at Mercedes' factory is going to be pushing like hell to deliver a car, to give us a chance to go fight next season."

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