George Russell has stated that Mercedes must “keep on believing” that the upgrades Mercedes brings to its 2024 Formula 1 car will inspire it to make a sizeable leap.
Despite renewed optimism that its overhauled W15 car was an improvement upon its predecessors, Mercedes has endured its worst opening to a season since 2011.
The German marque has shown its potential in flashes across the first five race weekends but those encouraging signs have tended to dissipate in the vital moments.
Mercedes trails 44 points behind third-placed McLaren, who began last season struggling to log points prior to upgrades transcending it into a regular podium scorer.
With Mercedes due to introduce parts this weekend in Miami, Russell outlines how recent events have shown it takes one development package to revitalise a squad.
“There’s been enough examples showing that when you bring an upgrade to the car, if you get it into that sweet spot, you can find a lot of performance,” Russell said.
“We saw it with Aston [Martin] in the ’22 winter, we saw it with McLaren last year. So we have to keep on believing that we can achieve a jump like that. But we’re also being realistic.
“We know that we’re being weekly in that fight for those four teams. Probably just on the backside of it, on qualifying, slightly more in the midst of the battle on a Sunday.
“And we’re taking a lot to make that swing. So we’re bringing some upgrades this weekend.
“I think McLaren and Aston had theirs last week. So everybody’s improving their car but you’re often improving at the same rate. And that’s the challenge everybody faces.”
Lewis Hamilton sustained a promising Sprint in China to secure an unexpected second place, but an extreme set-up change then saw him slump to a Q1 elimination.
The seven-time World Champion, who will depart to Ferrari at the end of this season, is hoping that the updates will see the operating window of the W15 be extended.
“We’ve got a small upgrade here this weekend. So excited to see developments coming through and hopefully we have a car in a bit of a better working window,” he added.
“No doubt it will still be a challenge, but I’m really excited to be here in the States.
“The weather’s incredible, it’s going to be a challenge for temperatures and tyre deg and all that sort of stuff, but we welcome it.”
