Russell returns to track action with unfavoured Mercedes W13 in Pirelli test

Russell was driving the Mercedes W13 - the 2022 F1 car - as he tested Pirelli’s new 2023 tyres ahead of the season.

Lewis Hamilton will take over on Thursday, giving the seven-time world champion the perfect opportunity to shake off any rust ahead of pre-season testing later this month.

There will be just three days of testing in Bahrain before the start of the new season on March 5.

The testing action continues on Friday and Saturday, with AlphaTauri evaluating Pirelli’s wet-weather compounds.

Next week, Mercedes and Aston Martin will be in action at Jerez, in Spain, to further test Pirelli’s dry compounds.

Even though Pirelli got the chance to have the teams test their new tyres in Friday practice sessions at the back end of the season, Mario Isola, the company’s head of motorsport, admitted it was “impossible” to schedule the adequate amount of test days,

“We realised it was impossible with the 2022 calendar, and also with next year’s calendar, to organise all the test sessions we needed,” he explained.

“In the regulations, we can use the current cars until December 15 and from February 1 to the first race of next year’s championship, using the 2022 cars. They cannot use the tests in February to develop the 2023 car.”