George Russell says rivals Alfa Romeo and Haas “haven’t done anything better” than Williams this year, despite the team being alone on zero points.
Williams has made substantial year-on-year progress but has yet to collect a top 10 finish, with Russell and Nicholas Latifi classifying 11th on three occasions, to put it last in the standings.
The Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo and Haas teams have also struggled but have picked up points on a handful of occasions.
Alfa Romeo has scored five points, and Haas three, with their respective tallies boosted by top 10 finishes for Antonio Giovinazzi and Romain Grosjean at the Eifel Grand Prix.
“In all honesty I think I’m realistic, and obviously as nice as it would be to score a point or two or three, ultimately the car just isn’t quick enough,” said Russell.
“We need to continue working really hard to bring more performance to the car as we don’t want to be lucking into [points at] these events, we want to be there on merit, ultimately that’s where we are at the moment.
“For Haas and Alfa [Romeo] things have just gone their way really in these races and they are no quicker than us and I don’t believe they have done anything better than us.
“Things have just gone their way when it has been these very specific opportunities and it hasn’t for us.
“There’s been a number of times when we’ve had really good races and finished high up the order relatively but there haven’t been five midfield cars breaking down, which is the difference between scoring points or not.
“It’s a shame, as a race team we’re doing things really well, we’re getting the most out of our package, we just need to get more downforce on the car to get in those positions more often.”
Russell’s Eifel Grand Prix hopes were wrecked when he was tipped into the air by Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen during an early battle with Sebastian Vettel.
“It was obviously frustrating, I actually overtook Sebastian in the chicane before, but he then got the run on me on the exit which I don’t think was shown on TV, which allowed him to have DRS,” he said.
“Kimi was behind, I left plenty of space, but Kimi locked up behind Sebastian and lost the rear.
“It’s racing, we’re all pushing hard, and it’s not easy sometimes, but it’s frustrating as the car was feeling good and the way the race went I think we could have scored points. It’s all going against us at the moment unfortunately.”
