New Mercedes a ‘significant change’, says Russell

George Russell says the team’s new vehicle has taken a “reasonable step” with it, and that George Russell is convinced.

Russell said the W16 E was “going to be a significant change” from last year.

Mercedes won four races in 2024, two each for Russell and former team-mate Lewis Hamilton, the team’s first victories since 2022.

However, the car’s performance was inconsistent, and Mercedes came in fourth place behind McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.

“Every year]since 2022] we have uncovered a problem, solved it and it’s created a new one”, Russell said.

We’ve made many adjustments, including making the simulator run, much more meticulously and meticulously than ever to make sure we’re not falling into a new trap.

We’ve been focusing on making improvements in the areas that last year held us back, according to technical director James Allison.

“Our main goal has been to balance the W15’s sluggishness in slow corners with the imbalance in tyre temperatures, which caused inconsistent car behavior from session to session,” said our team.

Before the track’s official F1 pre-season test on Wednesday at 07:00 GMT, the car is having a quick shakedown test in Bahrain on Tuesday.

The Australian Grand Prix will take place in Melbourne on March 14 and 16, 2019.

Russell predicted that McLaren, who won the constructors’ title for the first time since 1998 last year, would start the new year with the strongest position.

“Look at how dominant McLaren were, they are the favourites going into this year”, Russell said.

“It naturally gets closer in the final year of the regs, but I still think McLaren will be in the lead.”

Toto Wolff, the team’s principal, stated: “This is going to be a very competitive season.” Last year, we witnessed how close the field was. You couldn’t say race-to-race who would be at the front, and I expect this year to be even closer.

Following Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, Russell takes over as team leader alongside new team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Antonelli, an 18-year-old Italian regarded as one of the most prodigious young talents in the sport, said:” Winter preparation has been quite intense. Really interesting. Trying to avoid arriving in Melbourne with a bad surprise, aiming to concentrate on as many things as possible.

Russell said:” Even if the line-up stayed the same this year, going into this season it’s my fourth with Mercedes, seventh in F1.

“I think I’m getting stronger year on year, which is probably my best ever year.” So even if things had stayed the same, the team still had a lot of support.

” Equally the team gave me that support when I joined and now Kimi is a super-fast driver, super-motivated. Naturally, there is a lot to learn, but we can all look forward to a good season together.

Mercedes won eight constructors’ titles between 2014 and 2014, but they have fallen behind since 2022, winning just five grands prix in three years.

Russell once said, “We haven’t been anticipating the issues it will bring about in the future because we have been so focused on solving the problem.”

“You solve one thing and it creates a new problem, we have been much more forward-thinking than we have in the past.

When you modify the car’s characteristics, the front will take away the rear, and if you go too far, it will cause the opposite direction to suffer as well.

“It’s being thorough, saying: ‘ These are the fundamental changes we’re going to make. We believe that X will occur; will that cause issues at these races, and if so, how will we navigate it?