George Russell is pinning his hopes on Mercedes’ development to close the gap to “very strong” Red Bull during 2023.
The Brackley-based team had a mixed Formula 1 pre-season test in Bahrain last week, with a troubled second day blighting what was otherwise a solid three days of running.
However, it appears clear that Mercedes still has work to do to consistently challenge Red Bull for wins, while there is also a new threat emerging from Aston Martin behind.
“I wouldn’t say on the back foot,” Russell told Formula1.com of Mercedes’ current situation. “I think this team has a history of being very good at development throughout a season.
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“I think it’s important that you don’t throw everything into one basket when it comes to delivering, let’s say, an optimum package for race one, but making sure you’ve got a package that you can easily develop from and maybe find greater performance later down the line.
“So if I had to tell you right here, right now how it is probably going to pan out next week [in the Bahrain GP], I reckon we are going to be a little bit behind Red Bull. They look in a very strong state at the moment but I think we haven’t unlocked everything yet.
“I’d like to think eventually we’ll be catching them back up.”
Mercedes has already revealed that early season upgrades are coming to the W14, potentially shifting away from their zero sidepod concept.
But Russell is confident the 2023 car is at least a better starting point than its predecessor.
“In terms of feeling, it feels like a step in the right direction,” he said. “But as we know, the sport is not all about feeling, it’s ultimately about lap time.
“I think compared 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, was a bit lost, the car characteristics were not good.
“For sure, we’ve got things we need to improve with the car, but I would say generally speaking, we are roughly where we would have expected to be at this time of year.”