Photo Credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
In this period of rest that F1 is experiencing, teams are working hard to improve the performance of their cars. George Russell spoke about Mercedes’ upgrades arriving at Imola, saying that he is satisfied with the data that is emerging on the simulator and confident for the future.
The first part of the 2023 season proved to be difficult for Mercedes and far from expectations. In fact, as happened in 2022, the Brackley team brought an uncompetitive and a car to the track that is difficult to understand. In short, a single-seater that didn’t allow the English-based team to leave the third place in the Constructors’ Championship (also thanks to Ferrari’s unfortunate start to the championship) and didn’t allow them, as expected, to go back fighting for poles and victories.
A crisis which is causing many problems to the technical staff directed by Mike Elliott and James Allison (just recalled as technical director) to understand how to make the W14 work and to understand which is the right development direction to take. Developments which, over the next races, will make their appearance on the ‘black arrow’ and which, according to the information gathered in recent weeks, will lead the Brackley’s car not to have anymore the zero pod concept, moving (at least in part) towards the concept of Red Bull.
George Russell spoke about the upcoming developments, on which Mercedes is betting a lot to be able to at least become the second force in the field behind Red Bull. The King’s Lynn driver confirmed the arrival of these upgrades, but only in a few races, probably at the Made in Italy GP at Imola.
“Big changes are on the way, but of course it’s not possible to bring the changes into the car too quickly. I believe that in due course we will see big changes and I hope the lap times reflect them”.
The English driver then confirmed that he had already tested these updates on the simulator, from which he is receiving absolutely positive and encouraging feedback.
“We are working on these changes but I don’t want to reveal too much. We first need to make sure they are working as intended. We are making more progress in the last few weeks than we did last winter. The direction is the right one.”
