George Russell has teased he would like “a few more races” to get fully settled in at Mercedes.
The Briton is standing in for Lewis Hamilton at this weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix following the world champion’s positive test for Covid-19 on Monday.
And though Russell missed out on beating Valtteri Bottas to pole position by just 0.026s in qualifying, he later revealed that second on the grid far exceeded what Mercedes had set him as an acceptable target.
“Everyone at Mercedes – Toto [Wolff], James [Allison] – said just go out, enjoy it, there’s zero expectations on you,” he said via RaceFans.
“[They said] if Lewis were to jump in a Williams then it would be difficult, so we’re not expecting anything from you and if you qualify first two rows, top five, top six then fine, you can still get a podium from there.”
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Throughout Russell’s first race weekend at Mercedes however, he has continually had to adapt and overcome in a car which is designed for the much shorter Hamilton.
“Comfort-wise, it’s still not perfect,” he admitted. “I’m very bruised and sore.
“It’s going to be quite a long, fatiguing race tomorrow if you’re not comfortable in the car. I had ice on my shoulders last night to reduce some swelling, and my knees and toes. But when the car’s so fast you forget about all the pain.”
Operationally, the W11, with its DAS system and other innovations, is also proving a challenge.
“This car’s just completely different,” he said. “I’m learning all the new procedures, learning new buttons.
“First practice was a mess. I was pressing the wrong buttons, even in qualifying, I pressed neutral at one point instead of something else.
“It’s difficult when you’re in such a routine – for me, down at Williams, you don’t even think about these things, it just naturally happens.
“We’ve tried to modify as many things as physically possible just to make things easier for me. It’s been a lot of work and it still takes a bit of time, it takes a couple of races just to understand that.
“So, Toto, a few more races please and I’ll be there!”
As for Bottas, though he wasn’t all that pleased with his performance in qualifying, he was impressed with Russell.
“On a track like this, you can’t really make a big difference so the gaps are really small as you can see,” he said.
“But I have to say George really did a good job. He was really building up to it and I could see the progress in qualifying. So I’m really happy for us as a team that we can be one-two on the grid. It’s another big achievement for us.”