George Russell declares personal goal for 2023 at Mercedes launch

George Russell joins Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes

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Mercedes star George Russell did not mince his words when asked about his goals for the 2023 season at the W14 launch on Wednesday. The 25-year-old will be part of the effort to chase down Red Bull and Ferrari, with a stern warning fired to both of the Silver Arrows’ rivals. 

Russell and his Mercedes team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, will look to draw a line under a frustrating 2022 season, which saw them finish third in the Constructors’ Championship. The disappointing result ended an unprecedented streak of eight consecutive team titles. 

Signs of a fresh start are already apparent as Mercedes have ditched their silver livery by returning to black. Many are looking towards Hamilton to lead the charge against Max Verstappen in 2023, but it was Russell that finished as the team’s top dog last year. 

He was also the only Mercedes driver to have won a Grand Prix in 2022, with Hamilton failing to do so for the first time ever in his distinguished career. 

Russell is therefore full of belief, hunger and optimism ahead of the new season, which gets underway in Bahrain on March 5. When asked what his personal goals are for the forthcoming campaign at Mercedes’ W14 launch, he responded: “We’re all here to win, it’s as simple as that.

“We need to go out there and see what challenges we’re facing.” Alarmingly for Mercedes’ rivals, the Brit also cited an ‘immense’ determination behind the scenes to prevent a second successive frustrating year. 

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“The motivation and fire within the factory is immense because people don’t want a repeat of what happened in 2022,” he added. “We’re ready for it, and ready to go out there and fight.”

Mercedes only started to get their act together towards the back-end of 2022, after crippling porpoising issues left them miles off the pace in the early stages of the season. The Silver Arrows have retained their narrow sidepod design, with Hamilton admitting that he is ‘anxious’ to get out on track and discover whether or not the glaring issues have been resolved. 

“We’re all anxious to get out there and see,” revealed the seven-time world champion. “And also to see where everyone else is. You see the pictures of everyone launching their cars and you start to zoom in and see what they’ve got. But we won’t find out until next week exactly what everyone has got up their sleeve.

“We’ve done a lot of work in the simulator, we got to drive the old car but we’ve seen this in the works for some time now. I remember before Chrstmas seeing it in the wind tunnel. You hear about all the changes we’ve made and you just hope the characteristics of what we’ve been asking for [over] the past 12 months.”

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