F1 News
Russell sees immediate change at Mercedes: 'It seems to be working!'
- Estéban den Toom
On Wednesday in Bahrain, the Formula 1 season officially got back underway, as the 20 drivers took to the Bahrain International Circuit on the first day of testing ahead of the 2025 season. George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were also in action, with the British driver, Mercedes' front-runner for the first time, explaining what improvements he hopes to see in the new season, and where things went wrong in 2024.
"I think it was clear last year we struggled a lot in the hot races and we had a lot of oversteer in the car when the track was very hot. This is something we've tried to dial out. Of course, for everybody, it's trickier when it gets hot, but it was clear with our performance that we really went backwards and also, it was on a knife's edge. You saw us all have a few crashes last year," Russell explained.
Russell sees immediate change at Mercedes
"You go outside of the window, and you end up in the wall. So we've put a lot of focus on making the car more drivable, more intuitive to drive and I think from what we've seen so far it seems to be doing that," concluded a satisfied Russell, who was sat in the top two for most of the first day of testing in Bahrain. Teammate Antonelli was the fastest during the morning session.
Russell said recently that it would be quite a task to compete seriously for the world titles. In that respect, not much would be different from 2024. Then Russell finished sixth in the drivers' championship, and teammate Lewis Hamilton, now a Ferrari driver, did not move beyond seventh place. However, Russell did say he was determined to give Antonelli a good debut year.
This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy
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