Russell: Mercedes treating every race as an 'opportunity'

George Russell says Mercedes is treating every Formula 1 race as an 'opportunity' to win, despite the dominance displayed by Max Verstappen and Red Bull.

Mercedes has not won a race since the Brazilian Grand Prix, with Red Bull taking 15 wins in a row since the Abu Dhabi GP last season.

Even though the Silver Arrows changed their car concept at the beginning of the season after finding their zero sidepod concept did not yield the results they expects, they still lie second in the Constructors' Championship.

Russell does not feel their current season is a failure when speaking to media, including RacingNews365: "I feel like as a team, we've gone strength to strength this season and obviously there's a lot of expectations upon us going into this season.

"That's perhaps why people are calling our season a bit of a failure and of course, it's far from where we wanted to be, because we want to be fighting for championships."

Russell: We know we have to improve

Mercedes only won one race in 2022 compared to eight in the 2021 season, while the team has not come close to unseating Red Bull in 2023.

Russell has previously spoken about taking more risks during races, but believes they should not single out races as being ones that could be good for them.

He added: "We know we've got a lot to improve. We've made really good progress and I think going into this second half of the season, we can be there to hopefully pick up any pieces that fall our way. But we just never know.

"I think last year we had the mentality that Singapore would probably be our only opportunity in the second half to win a race and when we didn't win in Singapore, it was a bitter disappointment and there was no expectation going into Brazil and we came away with the victory there. So we treat every race as an opportunity."