Russell expects strong Brazil weekend after recent struggles

George Russell is hopeful that he can enjoy a more positive outing in Brazil compared to recent weekends.

Russell has been out-paced at the last handful of rounds by team-mate Lewis Hamilton who finished on the podium in the United States (before being disqualified) and Mexico.

Mercedes introduced its last major update of the season in the USA through a new floor but Russell still faced challenges that limited his pace.

“I’m feeling good with the new update, the last two races have been really poor for different reasons,” he told media including RacingNews365.com.

“It hasn't been a very intuitive [two] races with the limitations that we’ve had, having to do massive management last week [in Mexico] with the brakes, the massive management in Austin because of the fuel.

“I'm not standing here scratching my head, about why the pace isn't there. Because I know without these things, the pace would be there.”

However, Russell is confident that he can be back in top form during the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend as he returns to the venue at which he secured his maiden race win 12 months ago.

“It’s just been a couple of unfortunate reasons. So I'm kind of glad we've got this weekend here in Brazil. I'm not foreseeing any of these limitations.

“We'll see where we fall out. But it's just been sort of topping off our season.

“It's been a really challenging year, especially in contrast last year, when every race seemed to be sort of going our way and in the rhythm and the flow of things.

“This year has been very scrappy.”

Russell keen to avoid excuses

Despite providing reasons for his lack of pace at recent races, Russell has asserted that he doesn't want to be giving excuses for his underwhelming performances.

“It’s very fine margins,” he said. “I think Austin in the sprint race we started is slightly on the back foot. For Mexico we missed FP1.

“The pace was really strong in Mexico in FP3. We were strong during qualifying and then Q3 was just a bit of a strange one for everybody.

“I don't want to be making excuses here. Every weekend has its own limitations, this weekend is going to have its own limitations.”