George Russell says Mercedes has gathered “ideas” behind the reasons for its regression across race weekends in the opening rounds of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Mercedes has endured a challenging start to the current campaign, amassing 26 points from the first two rounds to mark its worst beginning to an F1 season since 2012.
The German marque had been encouraged that its revamped W15 car had eradicated the blemishes of its predecessor following a promising pre-season testing period.
But despite logging positive results during practice in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Russell and team-mate Lewis Hamilton have been limited to minor points hauls thus far.
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has admitted that its evident high-speed performance deficit in Jeddah did not correlate with the expectations from the simulator.
However, Russell was adamant that Mercedes’ decline flattered its rivals and he has now revealed that the squad has some understanding as to the origins of that issue.
Asked whether he was still confident the current machine has more potential than previous cars, Russell said: “Yeah, I think definitely, I think you’ve only got to look at the potential and the performance we showed in FP1 and 2 in the last two races. We were genuinely quick and the performance went away from us into qualifying, we have some ideas why that may have been.
“I think it’s also important just to remember we’ve only done three days of practice and two races, and I think if you compare that to a football team, if they’ve done three days of training together in the first two games of the season, they’ll still be understanding how to get the most out of each other and maximise the team.
“So that’s sort of where we’re standing right now. And it’s so close up there between the four teams after Red Bull, so it can easily swing.”
Despite its struggles with the current ground effect cars, Mercedes has logged podiums in the last two seasons in Australia and Russell even led the race 12 months ago.
The Briton is optimistic that Mercedes can be in contention for a top-three finish this weekend amid the team’s plan to utilise practice as a chance to solve its problems.
“I think we’ve gone well here the last two seasons,” he acknowledged. “Obviously we qualified second and third here last year, and we were fighting for a win at one point.
“And we’ve learned so much from the first two races.
“I think we’re all definitely going out tomorrow to test a lot of things on the car, to get a better handle on how to get the most out of this car.
“I think it’s off the compound of tyres this year, which Ferrari tend to go pretty well in qualifying on the C5 tyre.”
Russell has also pointed to Aston Martin’s fluctuating fortunes last season as he urges people to not assess Mercedes on its current form but rather on where it ends up.
“But I think if you take the Red Bull out of a situation, it’s a really exciting battle right behind,” he continued.
“But ultimately we’re not here to fight for P2, we want to be fighting for the victory. And we know it’s a mountain to climb, but it swings very, very quickly in this sport.
“And I think just going through our meetings this morning, seeing Aston Martin on the podium, if somebody said that after the first six races last year they’d finish P5 in the championship, you wouldn’t believe it. So I think that just goes to show how quick it can change.”
