Russell details key change to Mercedes’ F1 development approach

After two disappointing campaigns with flawed W13 and W14 designs which failed to hit their targets, Mercedes have been working hard on a fundamentally different car for next season. 

But unlike a “quantity over quality” approach in 2022, Russell says Mercedes now have a clear development direction. 

“We have 12 months' further information, direction, and we’ve managed to implement some of these changes we want for 2024, in certain tests, so far this year that work as we anticipate,” Russell said. 

“The work that we’re putting into 2024, we’ve been a lot more thorough with our assessment of every single decision.

“The car was nowhere close to where we wanted it to be for the last season [2022]. And we felt a lot needed to change [for 2023].

“We perhaps rushed a couple of decisions without thoroughly testing out the simulator, going through the potential consequences. And we were just trying so many different things.

“It was more quantity over quality testing last year. Whereas this year, we’ve really nailed down on the direction we want to go, we’ve thoroughly tested that process to kind of triple check this is the direction we’re taking.

“I’m confident 12 months later, we’ve now got two years’ worth of learning, I hope we’re not going to be caught out by anything going into next year.

“This doesn’t mean that we’re going to have the fastest car on the grid. It just means I don’t think we’re going to stumble at the first hurdle.”

Toto Wolff said Mercedes’ dire performance at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix last time out “confirmed” that the decision to commit to an all-new W15 design was “necessary”. 

“At least we know it confirms that the trajectory of changing fundamentally is right,” he explained. 

“Last year, we came out of an Interlagos weekend, where you're absolutely demolishing your competition Saturday and Sunday, and that was like: are we doing the right thing by continuing with the chassis that we have?

“Now it is pretty clear. This feels horrible for the whole team. And I wish we could start the new season and concentrate on the new car.”