George Russell declared himself as a candidate in the 2023 Formula 1 title race, emboldened by his defeat of team-mate Lewis Hamilton this year.
While Mercedes did not have a car capable of challenging for the title this season, Russell still managed to impress in his debut campaign with the team. He secured his first F1 win in Brazil, and finished 35 points ahead of Hamilton in the championship.
And having now got a year in a top team under his belt, as well as his previous F1 experience with Williams, Russell feels well placed for a 2023 title tilt. "I think I've got enough experience now that I feel ready to fight for a championship and be able to handle the challenges and difficulties that come with it," he told Racer.
"Obviously the likes of Lewis and Max [Verstappen] have more experience in that scenario. But if you go out and you put it on pole and win every race you will be world champion. So you have just got to focus on smaller details and it's in your own hands, almost."
The key to Russell's success in 2022 was his impressive consistency. He finished in the top five in all but three of the 22 races this year, while his only DNF came at Silverstone after he was tagged and sent into the side of Zhou Guanyu's car.
While of course he was not as dominant against his team-mate as he was used to being at Williams, Russell knows that is always going to be the case when competing against a seven-time world champion.
He added: "We went through the stats and statistically I finished ahead of my teammates, I think 95 percent of the time, in the five years prior to my year here. So I was used to a certain level of outscoring them, or whatever you want to call it.
"But then I had to say: 'If it's 55/45 in my favour, even if I lose 45 percent of the time, that's going to still be incredibly successful against Lewis'. So psychologically you need to set yourself up for small failures. I'm not going to beat him every single session, every quali, every race – that's just absolutely not going to happen.
"But having a year like we've had this year, I don't know what the numbers are, but it probably is 55/45, roughly. And that's an incredibly successful year, and almost equivalent to maybe what the 95/5 was for me previously. I always believed in myself, but definitely it's always a mindset. And if you go with the mindset that I'm going to beat Lewis Hamilton 95 percent of the time, you're going to come away disappointed."
