George Russell teases Mercedes F1 W16 changes: “In the pipeline for a long time”

George Russell has hinted that Mercedes have made significant changes for their new 2025 F1 car, claiming “these are things that have been in the pipeline for a long time”.

While Mercedes won four races in 2024, they finished a distant P4 in the F1 constructors’ championship.

Mercedes have been plagued with inconsistency since the start of the ground-effect era.

With the rules remaining stable over the winter, the battle at the front is expected to be tighter than ever before.

Mercedes will be hopeful that after three seasons of learning, they can finally mount a title challenge.

Speaking at Mercedes’ launch of their new partnership with Adidas, Russell expressed his optimism ahead of the new season.

“There have been a lot of.. I wouldn’t say changes directly from last year to this year, these are things that have been in the pipeline for a long time, items that we couldn’t quite put on the car in 2024 but we’ve been working on them for a long time,” Russell told Sky Sports.

“We’re optimistic it will be a good step in the right direction. You obviously never know what your rivals are going to have done.

“Throughout this year, with the thought of 2026, whether people keep developing or not is going to be quite intriguing.”

Russell ready for F1 title pursuit

George Russell will be the team leader in 2025 following Lewis Hamilton’s exit.

As a result, if Mercedes give him the tools to challenge, Russell expects to be a serious title contender.

2024 was a breakthrough year for Russell as he dismantled Hamilton, particularly in qualifying.

Russell showed he wasn’t afraid to go up against Max Verstappen with a war of words between the pair at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Assessing if he’s ready to challenge for the title in 2025, Russell added: “Absolutely. I feel ready, everybody in the team is so motivated.

“I feel that these years have sort of been trial and error, but every time we’ve had a chance to win, we’ve won.

“And that’s what gives me the optimism that if we do have the car, we can achieve it.

“We’re working as hard as we can for it to be this year, but everybody is fully on board and it’s going to be an exciting season.”