New Mercedes seems more drive-able than problematic 2024 car

Mercedes appears to have addressed the unwelcome characteristics which made last year’s car so unpredictable to drive, says George Russell.

The team won four races last year with its W15, which thrived in certain conditions, but Russell and former team mate Lewis Hamilton were often puzzled by sudden swings in its balance.

“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,” said Russell. “This is something we’ve tried to dial out [with the W16].

“Of course, for everybody, it’s trickier when it gets hot. But it was clear with our performance that we really went backwards.

“Also, it was on a knife’s edge. You saw us all have a few crashes last year: You go outside of the window and you were in the wall.

“So we’ve put a lot of focus on making the car more drive-able, more intuitive to drive. And I think from what we’ve seen so far, it seems to be doing that.”

However Russell pointed out the weather in Bahrain has been cooler and windier than normal. He said the team will have to carefully model the W16’s behaviour in more typical conditions to ensure it performs as desired everywhere.

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“It’s very important to take the data away from this week and take into consideration the conditions that we’ve got,” he said. “But you’ve also got to try and think what it could have been if the temperature was 20 degrees hotter, if the wind was 180 degrees different.

“That’s what we use the simulator for because it’s all well and good saying the car feels great here in Bahrain [at] 15 degrees [Celsius]. We’re never going to race in Bahrain in 15 degrees and the wind probably as strong as it is today.

“So that’s why I think the simulator correlation is really, really important and ensure you go through that sweep of conditions of wind to really try and understand what limitations you’re probably going to expect in a different circumstance.”

Russell was speaking between his first two runs in the W16 in Mercedes’ shakedown test and yesterday afternoon’s running at the Bahrain International Circuit.