Russell: 2023 “a strange season” with a “huge amount of missed opportunities"

Russell has secured eighth in the drivers’ championship with one round to go, well behind teammate Lewis Hamilton, who has third-place sewn up.

The British driver has finished on the podium just once this season - the same amount of times as the two Alpine drivers.

Russell threw away a guaranteed podium in Singapore on the final lap when chasing down Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, while Las Vegas was another missed opportunity after contact with Max Verstappen.

Reflecting on the year, Russell described it as a “very strange season”.

“It’s been a very strange season. It’s been a season where we’ve had a lot of pace at times but we’ve never achieved results that were deserved or possible,” he said. Need to try and understand why there’s been a huge amount of missed opportunities. 

“Really hasn’t been a smooth season but I think when everything is flowing, when everything is working right, luck tends to be on your side, and when you’re on the backfoot, you tend to have bad luck. We just need to be faster and lady luck will be with us.”

Despite struggling for overall results, Russell feels he’s improved relative to last year even though he out-performed teammate Hamilton in the standings.

“It’s definitely something I am going to look at over the winter because the results were so smooth flowing last year,” he added. “I think we finished in the top five more than any other driver and this year, I feel that I have upped my game, upped my pace in my quali pace, race pace. 

“We’ve definitely been on the backfoot. We have more competition this year with McLaren joining the fight, Aston being there at the start of the season. Ultimately we’re looking to get through this weekend, trying to cement P2 in the championship.”