George Russell and Lewis Hamilton both concur, and Max Verstappen’s remarks are quite telling.

George Russell says Mercedes is “closer than ever” to its competitors, but he concurs with Lewis Hamilton that more has to be done.

With victories at Silverstone and Austria, the two Brits are the most recent Formula 1 race winners. They are quite confident going into this weekend’s race in Budapest, but they are also realistic about facing off against their countryman Lando Norris and title leader Max Verstappen.

“Max is already way out in front in this championship, and Lando is in a pretty solid P2,” Russell stated. We just want to try and win as many races as we can for the remainder of the year. Naturally, we’ve significantly narrowed the gap and had two excellent races in the last four.

“Nevertheless, if you look at it, Max should have placed second in Austria and won two of those events in addition to finishing second in another. So those men have also had a strong run of form.

“It’s true that we’re closer than ever. All we have to do is wait and watch if this race weekend, together with the one in Spa, go well. If so, we’ll be quick everywhere. We mentioned that at Silverstone, but we’ll stay there for the duration of the season if we can pull it off for these next two.”

“It’s game on – we’re fighting, we’re chasing and we’re going to try to win as many races or compete for as many wins as possible,” Hamilton agreed and said. This weekend, it might turn out that McLaren or Red Bull are still in the lead. Who knows?

“But what we’ve shown over the past few races is that, with determination, with real focus and persistence, chasing perfection and improvement, you can make a difference. We are united as a team and we’re going to try to make sure we finish this season on a high. And if we can lift the team up in the constructors’ ladder and if we can progress enough – we’re not too far off the drivers ahead of us – then that’ll be great.”