George Russell says he doesn’t feel any pressure as he puts finishing touches to his preparation for this weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix in Lewis Hamilton’s car.
Mercedes have had to negotiate a temporary release for Russell from his Williams team with main driver, Lewis Hamilton missing out after returning a positive Covid-19 test.
Rebuffing any suggestions that the race would be an audition for a place with Mercedes in 2022, Russel reiterated: “There have been no targets expected of me by Mercedes because you can’t judge somebody off one race.”
With Valtteri Bottas’ contract set to expire at the end of next season, Russell’s drive on Bahrain tracks this weekend will be seen by many F1 enthusiasts as a showdown between the two.
“That’s not in the back of my mind,” Russell said.
“I’m going to go out there, enjoy it and learn as much as I can.
“I have a job to do on my return to Williams and try and push that team forward. I need to take this opportunity with both hands and maximize the learning. The future will be judged over the course of a season, and what’s happened in the past, not just one or maybe two races.”
Bottas admitted: “If he beats me, for sure it wouldn’t look so good on me if I had a normal race fair and square, so I try to avoid that. But I’m not a person who thinks like that, I try to turn things into motivation and positive thinking and that’s my mindset for this weekend.”
Russell, who has pointed out he faces a tough task this weekend was Mercedes’ reserve driver in 2017 and 2018, doing just over 6,500km of testing for the team albeit not even driven the improved 2020 car in the team’s simulator.
“I am being thrown in at the last opportunity,” said the 22-year-old.
“I haven’t driven their simulator in two years. My seat is three years old. I have so much information to learn and going up against Valtteri isn’t going to be easy.”
“Valtteri has been pushing Lewis an incredible amount over the years.”
“When you are in the groove, integrated in a team – I know the level I was at at Williams. Changing suddenly, there are so many new things to learn. I have no expectations, no targets.”
“I am in a good position. I am not putting any additional pressure on myself. I am going to go out and enjoy it.”
“This weekend will all be about learnings, especially Friday. If I get the opportunity next week in Abu Dhabi, who knows, that will be easier.”
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