George Russell expects this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix to be the “true test” of Mercedes’ upgraded W14.
Imola’s cancellation meant the Brackley-based team had to wait until last weekend in Monaco to introduce a heavily revised car, featuring new front suspension, floor and crucially, a switch to a more conventional sidepod design.
But with the streets of Monte Carlo hardly an ideal proving ground for such a big upgrade, Russell expects more answers will come in Barcelona.
“Firstly, no nasty surprises and considering how much we changed, that was a positive in itself,” he said of the revised car via Formula1.com.
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“This will be the true test. We didn’t learn anything in Monaco so this will be where we take a new baseline and we’ll learn from there.
“We’ve made a lot of changes since the Bahrain test and we learned pretty quickly into the season that the car wasn’t where we wanted to be.
“This as I say should be the new baseline and we can perform from here.”
In terms of how competitive the new Mercedes will be, Russell has relatively high hopes for race day at the Spanish GP.
“I think when you look on Saturday performance, we’re certainly behind Aston Martin, Ferrari, sometimes the Alpine as well,” he admitted.
“Looking at Sunday we’re a little bit closer to Aston Martin. I think we can jump ahead of Ferrari, close that gap to Fernando [Alonso] as he is definitely very fast, close the gap to Red Bull and get P2 in the Constructors’.”
Lewis Hamilton largely echoed his teammate about the upcoming weekend, but expects several external factors to also play a key role in Spain.
“I’m hoping the car is in a sweeter spot,” he said. “There are only medium, not very many slow-speed corners here. So, it will be a really good test of the efficiency of our car.
“There is going to be a lot of tyre degradation here because it’s going to be so high speed. But with the weather though, the weather is going to be a big part.”
