Photo: Daimler
Ex-Williams star George Russell hasn’t even been with Mercedes-AMG for long and he’s already making some bold claims with regards to this year’s upcoming Formula 1 season. Russell believes that 2022 could be wide open in terms of who’s going to be challenging for a title, with as many as five teams being in contention.
The young British driver joined Mercedes after the Silver Arrows won their record eighth consecutive constructors’ crown last year, making room at Williams for Alex Albon, the former Red Bull man. Russell’s team will obviously be one of the favorites to win the title again this year, but according to him, outfits such as McLaren and Ferrari could also take the fight to both Mercedes and Red Bull.
“A team like Ferrari that have been through a difficult period for the last two years are going to be so hungry, especially with this new rule change, to come back fighting, similar to McLaren as well. These teams have got the infrastructure, the talent within the engineering department, with the drivers as well, to really fight,” said the new Mercedes driver.
“I truly believe there are five teams all capable of really doing something special next year, so you’ve got to be absolutely on it, and I think development is going to be absolutely key [in 2022].”
Following end-of-season tests in Abu Dhabi, Russell also went on to acknowledge that the biggest winner this year will be the team that manages to understand their car the best and develop and build from those foundations throughout the season.
Now, we can’t help but wonder which is the fifth team that Russell was alluding to. There’s Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren, and then? If we apply logic to the problem, there are only three other teams he could be referring to, realistically: Alpine, Aston Martin and AlphaTauri. If we were to make an educated guess, we reckon he’s thinking about Alpine for that fifth title-contending spot.
“A team like Ferrari that have been through a difficult period for the last two years are going to be so hungry, especially with this new rule change, to come back fighting, similar to McLaren as well. These teams have got the infrastructure, the talent within the engineering department, with the drivers as well, to really fight,” said the new Mercedes driver.
“I truly believe there are five teams all capable of really doing something special next year, so you’ve got to be absolutely on it, and I think development is going to be absolutely key [in 2022].”
Following end-of-season tests in Abu Dhabi, Russell also went on to acknowledge that the biggest winner this year will be the team that manages to understand their car the best and develop and build from those foundations throughout the season.
Now, we can’t help but wonder which is the fifth team that Russell was alluding to. There’s Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren, and then? If we apply logic to the problem, there are only three other teams he could be referring to, realistically: Alpine, Aston Martin and AlphaTauri. If we were to make an educated guess, we reckon he’s thinking about Alpine for that fifth title-contending spot.
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