Russell: Mercedes found more gains in recent weeks than the entire winter break

George Russell has disclosed that Mercedes made substantial progress with its W14 car in the brief period between the Saudi Arabian and Australian Grands Prix.

The British driver explained how the team has managed to find more gains in just a few weeks than it did during the entire winter break:

"I mean, we’re working really hard at the moment with these changes. I won’t give too much away. And we need to make sure they work as expected."

"But as we’ve said a number of times, we’re probably finding more gains in the past two or three weeks than we found over the whole winter by clearly developing in the wrong window. So yeah, it’s definitely heading in the right direction.”

Managing Expectations for Upcoming Upgrades

As Mercedes plans to introduce a significant upgrade package for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola in May, Russell emphasizes the importance of managing expectations.

He shared his thoughts on the matter: “I think it’s a case of managing expectations, and just focusing on yourself and that development.”

Russell also acknowledged the team's initial overconfidence: “We all believed over the winter what we were doing was correct because it was an evolution of what we did throughout last year."

"And we all saw the improvements we made as a team throughout last year to win a race at the end of the year and be fighting at the front.”

Russell remains cautiously optimistic: “All I will say is we are making improvements and that should translate into lap time."

"We recognize that Red Bull are over a second down the road at the moment."

The W14's performance on the smoother Albert Park Circuit in Australia allowed Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton to qualify in second and third positions.

The British duo led the race during the early stages until Red Bull's dominant speed proved too much for Mercedes to handle.

Russell eventually retired due to an engine failure, but Hamilton secured the team's first podium of the year, finishing second behind Max Verstappen.

While Russell and Hamilton acknowledge that the gap to Red Bull remains significant, their performance in Australia has boosted the team's confidence in their ability to close the gap as the season progresses.

Russell reflected on the team's quick adaptation after the Bahrain Grand Prix: “I think already on the Saturday night of the Bahrain Grand Prix, we were trying different things, going in a different direction with the development because we recognized we’d maybe gone too far.”

Currently, Mercedes sits third in the Constructors' Championship, just nine points behind Aston Martin and a comfortable 30 points ahead of Ferrari, who experienced a nightmarish weekend in Australia.