F1 News: George Russell Confesses "Loss Of Confidence" Caused His Downturn In Performance
Mercedes F1 driver George Russell has revealed that his downturn in performance could have been due to a "loss of confidence".
The British driver had an impressive start with Mercedes being branded as 'Mr. Consistency' during 2022 after finishing in the Top 5 for the majority of the races. On top of this, he celebrated his first career win at the Brazilian Grand Prix, which was also Mercedes' only win of the year. However, he has struggled to have the same success throughout 2023.
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Russell's best performance during the first 14 races of the 2023 season was at the Spanish Grand Prix when he took third position on the podium next to his teammate seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton who finished in second-place.
During an interview with the media, Russell has now revealed that he thinks his downturn in performance was due to a "loss of confidence". However, he confirmed that he thinks he has his "mojo back". He explained:
"The loss of performance, in my head at least, has maybe been through a loss of confidence.
"I definitely took a step back in qualifying performance, but if anything, my race pace had been as strong as ever.
"My race pace this season has really been one of my strengths, and it's something I'm really pleased about, because the qualifying pace, if anything, is the most straightforward part.
"It's just balls-to-the-wall, drive as fast as you can over one lap."
Russell continued:
"What we've concluded is that we've been going wrong setup direction in the recent few races, and that's been compromising my confidence and the qualifying performance, and we perhaps put too much emphasis on the race pace.
"Now that the grid is so compact, in the past, if you're one-tenth or two-tenths off in qualifying, it may have been one grid position. Now it's five or six.
"A number of these factors have hindered me on a Saturday, but that's why I was so happy at Zandvoort, because we changed the approach, put full focus on qualifying, on regaining my confidence, and after five laps back in the car, I felt like I got my mojo back."
