Russell: Lessons learned from testing will help improve

George Russell admits that things didn’t go well for Mercedes during testing, but the team has learned the lessons and hopes to add more this weekend.

George Russell: “Overall the team is in a good mood, testing went well, we got a lot of information. On the one hand Red Bull Racing makes a strong impression, on the other hand there are many areas where we seriously need to add.

It is likely that what we have learned in testing will already allow us to pick up some pace this weekend, although of course we will not have it easy if we go on to claim victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix. But maybe we already knew this before the start of the season.

Of course, the results of the tests can be taken as a good guideline, but the fact is that before qualifying and the race we will not know the true combination of forces. Some teams surprised us with their speed, some were fast in one lap, some showed good pace in long stretches of laps, but it’s important to remember that we aimed to develop a car that would be the best at the end of the whole season. will be. , consisting of 23 stages.

It is clear that Bahrain has a special place among the championship circuits, so I don’t think this weekend’s results will allow us to make any predictions for the season as a whole.

The three days of testing may not have gone as smoothly as we’d hoped, but I’ve already applied the lessons learned when we returned to our base in the UK and worked on the simulator. We think all of these will be useful to us, and we can add more. While it must be admitted that Red Bull is in a league of its own this weekend, there will be a fierce battle between Ferrari and Aston Martin for second place.

Last year was very helpful for me, I discovered how Mercedes works and I am lucky to work with a team of this level. But the new season begins, new opportunities arise, we face new challenges and I really want to know what results we can achieve in 2023.”