The drinks-backed squad eased to a 1-2 end within the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, prompting many throughout the paddock to foretell a Crimson Bull walkover this yr, with Russell opining that they might win each race in 2023.

Crimson Bull have sought to minimize the importance of their Bahrain dominance, with driver Sergio Perez noting that the distinctive traits of the Sakhir circuit might make that consequence an outlier.

In distinction to Crimson Bull’s Bahrain cakewalk, Russell completed a lowly seventh in Mercedes’ troublesome W14, and talking earlier than the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend, the Briton mentioned he stood by his preliminary evaluation of Crimson Bull’s dominance.

Russell: Crimson Bull in a league of their very own

“Once I rewatched the [Bahrain Grand Prix], and I see that Crimson Bull had been one second quicker than everybody, and their engineers had been telling them to decelerate and handle the tempo, it is clearly a bit regarding, and we have now to present them credit score for the work they’ve achieved,” Russell instructed media, together with RacingNews365.com.

“I believe we have recognised some issues on their automobile which can be very fascinating and intriguing designs which can be clearly working to their profit very well.

“After all, there could be races the place there’s reliability [problems] or crashes, or no matter, however they’re in a league of their very own in the mean time.

“I believe the view among the many paddock is that they’re in all probability not displaying their full potential both, they’re holding one thing again, so I see no purpose why they should not be the quickest automobile each weekend.”