George Russell warns Ferrari and Red Bull that Mercedes are hot on their tails

The former Wisbech schoolboy says he is in ‘no doubt’ Mercedes could still challenge for wins this season despite their difficult start to the year.

And that’s despite Russell and Lewis Hamilton’s still suffering from porpoising issues that are causing them physical discomfort during races but that teams including Red Bull are adamant Mercedes should solve themselves rather than hope for rule changes.

On whether Mercedes could challenge with their current setup, Russell said: “Yeah no doubt. I don't think we're a million miles away from it.

“Every different session and every different run we're trying different things on the car and we've got to gather all this information.

“Every single track we go to we've got a slightly different issue as well and we're just getting this global picture.”

Russell did, however, need to assess whether their current car was right for the challenge and that there is ‘no guarantee’ their design had the potential to compete.

He added: “Nothing's off the table. We've obviously got a drastically different concept to every other team, we need to think, 'Is that the right concept? Do we need to try anything different?'

"We believe what we've got offers the most amount of potential but there's no guarantees."

Russell is back on track this weekend for the Canadian Grand Prix, before Silverstone hosts the British Grand Prix on July 3.