Russell explains why Mercedes are suddenly F1 race winners again
F1 News
After producing a largely uncompetitive car since the rules and regulations were introduced in 2022, Mercedes are finally back to winning ways. In fact, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton each won one of the last two Grands Prix and now head to a circuit where they have secured pole position every year since 2020. Both British drivers have their hopes up ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.
Mercedes won every Constructors World Championship between 2014 and 2021 but have simply lagged behind Red Bull since the changes were introduced in 2022. Even at the start of the 2024 season, Mercedes were behind their customer team McLaren, but upgrades in Monaco changed the picture.
Mercedes actually now have a big advantage going into the second half of the Formula 1 season in 2024. The new F1 scaling for wind tunnel and CFD time has been set and Mercedes are the 'big winners'. The team finished narrowly above Ferrari in the constructors' standings in 2023 and, as number two, had only 75% of testing time. Because of its current fourth place in the championship standings, Mercedes gets an additional 10 per cent. A good time for the Germans, who have just started the upward trajectory.
An exciting time for Mercedes
Still, Russell himself is very surprised by the turnaround, which has seen him take two podiums. "If you told us at the start of the year we'd be going into Hungary fighting for three wins in a row, we wouldn't have believed it. We've led the last four races since the upgrades, which is an incredible turnaround for us and everybody's super motivated," Russell told GPblog and others in the paddock before explaining the secret behind the upgrades in Montreal and why it made such a difference.
"We both have much more confidence in the car. We can push it closer to its limit. Our tyres are feeling better when we drive in the race. We can manage tyres easier on the edge, it just has a bit of a snowball effect in terms of its performance. This small upgrade has turned into something quite large in terms of lap time because we can exploit the car more and that's the biggest thing about having that confidence beneath us," the Brit continued.
But Russell holds back slightly. "There are no guarantees going into the next two race weekends. I think from these last four, without a doubt we had the quickest car in qualifying in two of them and the quickest car in the race in two of them, but still, in Austria, we were a good 10 to 20 seconds behind Max and Lando. So we need to see where we fall out this weekend," he added.
Mercedes have scored more points than any other team in the last two Grand Prix weekends. In Spain, they were just two points shy of Red Bull's total, and in Canada, they equalled McLaren's top score. However, Mercedes are still more than 150 points behind Red Bull's tally. With F1 being extremely competitive at the front, eating into the deficit will not be easy.