George Russell has revealed that he will know within “five laps” of driving the 2025 Mercedes car whether or not the team is set to experience a “good season” in Formula 1.
Russell heads into the campaign in a unique position compared to his past three with Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton’s exit has seen him be recognised as the team leader.
Hamilton has departed to Ferrari having become disillusioned with Mercedes’ struggles since the regulation change in 2022 which coincided with Russell’s arrival.
The German marque notched four wins in 2024, but a W15 car which was susceptible to erratic swings in competitiveness led to an eventual drop to fourth in the standings.
However, Russell vowed that Mercedes has been more thorough than ever with its preparations over the winter to minimise the chance it encounters unexpected problems.
Russell has claimed that he will be able to decipher inside his opening laps behind the wheel of the W16 in pre-season testing whether that approach has paid dividends.
“I think within five laps you know if you’re in for a good season or not,” Russell told select media including Motorsport Week at the F1 75 season launch event in London.
“And we’ve known within the first five laps of the last couple of years that we wouldn’t be fighting for the championship.
“Or at least we knew we wouldn’t be fighting at the beginning of the season.
“So I feel that, as I said, it’s been much more robust this season, but all of the teams are so competitive now.
“And everybody knows the limitations that they’ve had over these last three years.”
Mercedes set to take ‘good step forward’ in 2025
Russell divulged that the side’s wind tunnel simulations have predicted that the eight-time Constructors’ Champions will take a sizeable leap from where it ended last term.
However, he has warned that the trouble the teams have endured with correlation with the current cars has demonstrated there is no assurance that will translate to the track.
“If we bring the performance that we expect it should be a good step forward,” he stated. “But we’ve seen it with many other teams they bring an upgrade and it doesn’t work.
“So there’s never guarantees, but as a team we obviously went through such a lull throughout 2023 not winning a race.
“There was a big restructure change with James Allison [Mercedes Technical Director] coming back and he’s really been pushing at the helm of the new approach.
“I think hopefully we’ll see a bit of that into 2025. Obviously 2026 is a big one, but I’m optimistic we can have a decent season.”
Mercedes’ ground effect struggles
Russell highlighted how the unanticipated porpoising that blighted teams on the return to ground effect cars concealed some initial weaknesses embedded in the Mercedes car.
Asked why it has taken Mercedes a considerable time to get a handle on these regulations, Russell replied: “I think in 2022 there were more issues with the car than first met the eye.
“And everything was dominated by bouncing and we couldn’t unpick what was bouncing and what were poor characteristics within the car. So it took a good 18 months to solve bouncing.
“Then we recognised we had a bit of a problem with the suspension. We changed the suspension. Then that caused the balance problem.
“And these things, it does just take time. And I think when something clicks and something works, you sometimes also don’t know quite why that is.
“We went to Vegas last year and dominated. I’d love to tell you exactly why that is. We’ve got some ideas why that could be.
“But there’s not a silver bullet saying that is the reason why you were so strong there. And that is the reason we were so weak elsewhere.
“And I think that’s the case with everyone. Even McLaren, for example. I don’t think even they believed they could find the performance that they did. It’s just all got to work together.
“As I said, I’m more confident this year with the work we’ve done on the sim. We’ve got some really great simulator drivers who are putting in lots of effort.
“Kimi [Antonelli]’s been doing some really great work as well. I’m much more confident we’re not going to fall into a trap as we have in previous years.”
READ MORE – George Russell: Mercedes has avoided development ‘traps’ with 2025 F1 car
