Russell labels current season his ‘best in terms of pure performance’

George Russell believes that the current Formula 1 season has been the best of his career so far “in terms of pure performance”.

The Briton is enduring his second campaign with Mercedes and his fifth overall in F1.

Russell is currently sitting eighth in the Drivers' Championship, tied on 115 points with McLaren's Lando Norris.

However, he has detailed a number of instances where he felt crucial points have slipped away from him.

“In terms of pure performance, I feel that this season has been my best ever,” Russell told media including RacingNews365.

“But I reckon there's over 60 points that we've lost this season for a number of different reasons.

“Australia we had a shot at a podium at the minimum and lost 18 points there [with the engine failure].

"We had Zandvoort with the rain, there was another podium that was gone.

“The podium [in Singapore] was obviously driver error. We had in Canada, again, another mistake from my side, another 10 points lost there.

“Monaco, a few points lost as well. And there's been many, many races where, where we've lost points when I put in contrast to last year, I think we were in the top five at 19 of 22 races and we just kept on collecting those points.”

Russell confident over eliminating mistakes

Mercedes is currently aiming to hold onto second place in the Constructors' Championship, holding a narrow 30-point gap over Ferrari.

The team missed out on crucial points in Singapore when Russell crashed out on the last lap while running in third place, chasing rivals ahead for the race win.

However, Russell has asserted that he will not make a snimilar mistake going forward if he finds himself in a position to challenge for a title.

“I've got an objective and target this year to secure P2 and the Teams’ Championship,” he said.

“I think it was it was quite clear this year from the beginning that we weren't going to be fighting for a championship.

“I don't know if that's had an impact on my mentality at all or not.

“But I can assure you once we're in the position to fight again for a championship, I'm sure to be back to the ways on how to fight for a championship.”