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George Russell says Mercedes is “building a car that will be faster than last year’s car”, and comments on Red Bull’s cost cap breach penalty.
After a difficult 2022, everybody is looking at Mercedes to see if the team will be able to get back to the top in 2023.
In a talk with Auto Motor und Sport, George Russell says the W14 will definitely be faster than the W13 was, but it’s hard to say how it will compare to the competition.
“We know that we are building a car that will be faster than last year’s car,” the Briton said.
“I’m also sure that we will improve compared to last year. But we don’t know what everyone else did. And that’s the problem. It’s a relative game.”
Mercedes could also benefit from Red Bull’s aero testing time reduction. As the winners of the 2022 Constructors’ Championship, the Austrian team will be able to spend less time in the wind tunnel than their competition.
In addition, they received an extra 10% reduction as a penalty for breaching the 2021 budget cap.
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However, Russell doesn’t think the reduction will hurt Red Bull as much as it might seem at first glance.
“I think it can be a factor, but the benefit Red Bull has is they started from such a high level and they had the foundations there.
“We are using our wind tunnel time to find answers. For example, is that the direction we need to go, or is that the direction we need to go?
“Whereas Red Bull, because they were on the right track from the beginning, they are not problem solving, they are just adding performance.
“Even though it sounds like we have a lot more wind tunnel time, because they were on the right track from the start, I don’t think it will hurt them as much as it seems on paper.
“Because we probably use that extra 10% solving our problems, which Red Bull have already solved,” the Briton concluded.
