Russell confident about 2025: ''We've been more disciplined than ever'

As of the 2022 season, the German team have been unable to make the most of the new regulation changes, meaning Russell and Lewis Hamilton were a step behind the rest of their competitors at the front, something unheard of, with the team exerting a dominant level of authority over the rest of the grid since 2014. 

However, there were some positive signs from the 2024 season, with Hamilton and Russell taking two wins a piece, which suggested that Mercedes were getting back to their top form. Now with the Australian Grand Prix just a few weeks away, which the German team will be preparing for during winter testing in Bahrain,  with far more optimism than they've had in the past two season starts.

Russell on problems in past F1 seasons

Speaking to several sources including GPblog, ahead of the F175 Live event, Russell hopes that a lot will change in 2025: "I think it's going to be a significant change this year, to be honest."

However, the Brit adds that Mercedes have also been careful to not develop their way into potential gremlins that could limit the car's performance. "It’s like, every year we've uncovered a problem, we've solved it and it's created a new one and we've probably been a lot more disciplined with every change that we've made and been more thorough than ever in terms of the simulator running just to ensure we're not going to fall into a new trap."

The Mercedes driver continued: "So far, it has been a reasonable step. Obviously, you have no idea what everyone else is doing and it's going to be, I feel, quite an interesting season with how people deploy the resource between '25 and '26."

This article was created in collaboration with Cas van de Kleut

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