George Russell says that competing for the race victory at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix next week will be “a bit of a stretch” for Mercedes.
The Brackley-based squad enters the 2023 campaign looking to improve on last year’s form, when it slumped down the pecking order.
It took just a single grand prix win during the campaign as it made steady gains throughout the season.
Mercedes has thus far endured an untroubled pre-season test and is not witnessing the porpoising issues that hindered its early-season prace in 2022.
Despite being in a happier place compared to 12 months ago, Russell says Red Bull’s speed may be too much for Mercedes in Bahrain.
“You definitely head into the season believing,” he said. “Every point of my career, I’ve always gone in believing that you need to take a rational view once you get to the track and you learn.
“I think we definitely believe eventually we will have a car capable of getting into that fight. Whether we’re going to have that next weekend in Bahrain, I think may be a bit of a stretch.
“They look very strong, they look very stable – the car’s looking really strong and obviously Max’s performing really well. So I think realistically it will be a stretch for next week.
“But there’s no reason why eventually we can’t get there at some point this year. We’ve always seen the strength of Mercedes and their development rate. So definitely the belief is there.”
Russell logged 69 laps during the first day of pre-season testing on Thursday before jumping into the car once again on Friday afternoon.
Prior to his second outing in the car, Russell says that there are still areas in which the team can improve – but admits he is pleased with where it sits.
“In terms of feeling, it feels a step in the right direction,” Russell added. “But as we know in the sport, it’s not all about feeling – it is ultimately about lap time.
“I think comparing to this time 12 months ago, things are running a lot smoother. Obviously when we were here last year, there were a lot of alarm bells ringing with the porpoising, unsure how to solve it.
“We were a bit lost – the car characteristics were not good. Certainly, I think things have been running much smoother.
“Reliability has been strong so far to allow us to do the test programme.
For sure, we’ve got things we need to improve with the car, but I would say, generally speaking, we’re roughly where we would have expected to be at this time of year.”
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