George Russell admitted that the past seasons with Mercedes haven’t been easy, but he is proud of the team’s working ethic, and he hopes that with the W15, Mercedes will be more competitive.
Failures help growth, that’s what Russell believes. Despite the challenges and difficulties, he has faith in the team, which he believes has learned from what went wrong in the last two seasons.
“We’ve learned and grown as a team over the past two seasons,” George commented. “It’s not been plain sailing, but I truly believe the journey we’ve been on will make us stronger in the long run. The whole team has been working incredibly hard, and we hope to have made a step with the W15.”
Russell continued by saying that Mercedes managed to improve some critical areas of the W14 during the 2023 season. However, the car’s operating window was still small. Therefore, the Brackley-based outfit aims to widen it even more to find more performance.
“We made progress with some nastier characteristics of the W14 throughout last year. But we still had a narrow operating window and, once we were outside of that, the car was difficult to drive. If we can continue to widen the operating window of the car, that will provide confidence for us as drivers, and from there, lap time is easier to find.”
“F1 is an incredibly difficult sport. It’s very hard to win. And that’s why we love it. Every woman and man at Brackley and Brixworth is so focused on getting to the top. We continue with that focus and dedication into 2024, and I’m excited to see where that takes us,” George concluded.