George Russell plans to be more aggressive at the start of races having struggled in that area during 2019.
Though the Briton out-qualified his previous Williams teammate Robert Kubica 21-0 last year, it was often the Pole getting ahead on the opening lap, forcing Russell to get back past.
While the Mercedes junior admits some of that caution was intentional, with the Grove-based squad hoping to be more competitive this season, Russell knows he can’t be losing places early on again.
“I will definitely try to be stronger,” he told Motorsport. “It’s an area of my driving where I definitely didn’t do a good enough job last year.
“But it was a strange situation we found ourselves in. The cars ahead would just clear off and I’d just be racing with Robert.
“It was my first year and I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks in that regard.
“But definitely, this year, I need to be getting my elbows out a bit more, because I can’t be fannying around at the back.”
Despite a solid pre-season, Russell is still convinced Williams will be the slowest team when the racing finally gets underway after this enforced delay due to the coronavirus.
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It’s for that reason he is limiting his goals for this year.
“I guess a great outcome would be outqualifying and beating another car, considering where we were last year,” he said.
“But that’s not exactly the goal. We’re not going out there to try and achieve that, we’re going to try and get the most out of our car. Whether that’s P19 or whether it’s a Q3 performance.”
