04/03/2023
NEWS STORY
George Russell believes that Fernando Alonso will have the edge over the Ferraris come race day.
Throughout the weekend, the Spaniard has constantly proven that the pace demonstrated in pre-season was genuine and didn't rely on trickery in terms of fuel loads.
Though the two-time world champion eventually had to settle for fifth on the grid, having been out-paced by both the Red Bulls and Ferraris, George Russell believes that in terms of a podium finish Alonso may have the edge over the Maranello drivers.
"Their race pace is always a little bit worse than their qualifying pace and for us it's a bit the opposite," the Briton told reporters, when asked about the Ferraris.
"So qualifying three-tenths behind them when they've probably been the fastest car in a single lap, I think we're in a good place," he added. "To be honest, Fernando's probably more of a dark horse than Ferrari."
Fastest in FP2 and FP3, Alonso was always there or thereabouts in Q1 and Q2, but when it really mattered the Aston Martin was no match for the RB19 or SF-23.
"I was expecting a little bit more from them, to be honest," said Russell of the Silverstone-based outfit. "I was a little bit surprised we were so close to them, with the pace they showed.
"So, I guess it was a good session for us... it's interesting how they were so competitive in practice but ultimately when qualifying's the first time you truly get a real read and going into this weekend this is roughly where we expected to be."
Despite the fact that Toto Wolff is talking of going back to the drawing board, Russel believes the W14 is a decent package, especially after the changes carried out overnight.
"After yesterday it's a lot better than we expected," he said. "We had a tough Friday, we expected to add a bit of performance overnight but the performance we added probably exceeded expectations.
"Ultimately the car's feeling nice to drive," he continued, "so I think we're in a much better starting place compared to the W13 and now we can focus on global performance rather than spending three-quarters of the year problem-solving.
"We're in a good place to fight for P3 tomorrow with Ferrari and Fernando, we put a bit more of an emphasis on setting the car for the race tomorrow, so all to play for."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Manama here.