George Russell thinks Mercedes 'rushed' F1 car as Brit gives 2024 update
George Russell said his Mercedes team "rushed" its 2023 car design as he expressed his confidence that the team will learn from its mistakes this winter.
Russell's team has a significant task on its hands in designing and developing the W15. It needs to be a whole lot more competitive than its two predecessors, in which their drivers managed just one win in total.
It was Russell who secured that victory, at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix. Team-mate Lewis Hamilton has gone more than two years without winning an F1 race - the longest run of his lengthy career by a considerable margin.
Mercedes adapted poorly to new car regulations in 2022 and have been playing catch-up to Red Bull ever since. They stuck with their guns for their 2023 W14 car but quickly changed course after finally conceding they were on the wrong development path.
Team principal Toto Wolff has already made it clear his team is essentially starting from scratch on the W15 with a brand new concept and design from front to back. And Russell is pleased with the "due diligence" he has seen from colleagues when it comes to designing his new racing machine.
Sebastian Vettel warns of looming F1 ban and is "very worried about the future"
"I think last year it was all a little bit rushed," he told Autosport. "We didn't have all the information to hand, we may have jumped to a couple of conclusions without thoroughly going through the consequences.
"And we learned when the car hit the ground this year that we made a step forward in some regards, but it came with a lot of baggage and we hadn't taken that into consideration. So, I think we've done a great job to truly understand what we need.
"We've obviously had a further 12 months' experience to further understand the car and what brings the performance. I think last year we put all our eggs in one basket and that wasn't a basket that provided the performance we were expecting.
"The fact is, we've got to close a huge gap. The Red Bull dominance [in 2023] is probably the greatest - I think statistically it is the most dominant car ever - so we've all got a huge task on our hands. But I'm going into next year with an open mind.
"I don't think anyone's expecting either us, McLaren, Aston Martin or Ferrari to make that step straight away. But [I'm] definitely confident we won't fall into some of the same traps we did this year."
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
