George Russell on Red Bull pace advantage – ‘Almost embarrassed to show their full potential’

Verstappen lost out to Russell and Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap but cruised past the seven-time world champion after the first red flag and, at one point, had a lead of over 11 seconds.

Red Bull are already 58 points clear of second-place Aston Martin in the constructors’ championship, with Mercedes a further nine points behind.

“For sure, they are holding back,” Russell told BBC Radio 5 Live. “They are almost embarrassed to show their full potential because the faster they seem globally, the more the sport is going to try to hold them back somehow.

“Realistically, they probably have seven tenths’ advantage over the rest of the field.

“I don’t know what the pace difference looks like at the moment but Max has got no reason to be pushing and nor has Red Bull.

“They have done a really great job. We can’t take that away and we clearly have to up our game.”

Red Bull dominated the second half of 2022 after Ferrari’s title challenge faded away and they appear to be more dominant this season.

Hamilton’s streak of winning a race each season came to an end last year and his second place on Sunday in Melbourne was Mercedes’ first of the 2023 campaign.

The seven-time world champion says the result was “unexpected” and he is still not happy with the balance of the W14.

“I still feel uncomfortable in the car,” said Hamilton. “The car, I still don’t feel connected to it, so I’m driving as best I can with that disconnect.

“I’m working as hard as I can to try and create that connect. But I think it’s a long project. But still, considering we’ve been down on performance, we are clearly down on end-of-straight pace compared to the Red Bulls, for us to be up here fighting with Aston is just amazing at this point in the season.

“We’ve just got to keep on fighting. Big, big thank you to all the people back at the factory. Let’s keep pushing. We can close that gap. It’s going to be tough, but not impossible.”