George Russell lamented on Sunday in Austin another missed opportunity to score a podium finish, an unfulfillment that has become "the story of his season” says the Mercedes driver.
Russell consistently trailed teammate Lewis Hamilton over the course of the US Grand Prix weekend as he struggled to extract the best performance from a car that Hamilton commended following Mercedes’ latest upgrade.
The 25-year-old was never a force to be reckoned with among the front-runners at the Circuit of the America.
From fifth on the grid, Russell lost three positions on the opening lap and made little progress thereafter, eventually settling outside of the top five and crossing the checkered flag seventh before he was bumped up to P5 in the wake of the disqualifications of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Russell reckoned that all things considered a podium was possible. He therefore bemoaned – and not for the first time this season – a missed opportunity to carry home a big bag of points.
“Story of the season really, it feels, of missed opportunities,” commented the Briton.
“On the back foot from the beginning, making a bad start. And then we put a hard tyre on and we had to manage the fuel, we had to manage the engine a little bit.
“We were about second off the pace and we put the Medium back on and we were the quickest car on track. Closed in on Max by about 10 seconds and on Lewis by a couple of seconds.
“So standing here, I’m thinking it was definitely another missed opportunity and frustrating we weren’t on the podium.”
Asked if the weekend’s condensed sprint schedule in Austin had weighed on his preparations and contributed to his performance deficit relative to Hamilton, Russell dismissed the conjecture.
“We had that last weekend and it was one of my strongest weekends in Qatar,” he said.
“To be fair, Austin’s always been a bit of a bogey track for me. I’ve always struggled a bit here. It’s probably always been one of his [Hamilton] strengths, this circuit.
“But I’m not too concerned because it feels like this is definitely a bit of an outlier with how bumpy it is. Really old tarmac with all the subsidence and cracks around it. So I’m not concerned.”
Russell suggested that circumstances and “fine margins” conspired to make his life difficult all weekend.
“When I look at the pace today, I think that last stint was a really good example of what the potential was,” he highlighted.
“It’s often fine margins. I was off the pace in qualifying and come Q3, the pace was there again. And then on the Medium tyres in Sprint qualifying, I was ahead in SQ1 and SQ2 but then I didn’t have a new tyre in SQ3, so it’s just one of those where we were just on the back foot from the beginning.
“As I said, It just feels like the story of the year. I think last year, I don’t think we ever missed an opportunity probably once in 22 races, whereas this year it feels like 50% of the races we’ve been far from maximising the points.”
On the positive side, Russell was extremely encouraged by the step forward enjoyed by Mercedes following its latest upgrade and which was validated by Hamilton’s performance in Austin.
“It’s probably exceeded my expectations this weekend, the upgrade,” he said.
“It’s definitely exciting, heading into next year, what I think we’ll be capable of achieving. So things are definitely looking in the right step.”
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