Mercedes hail “a lot calmer” start to F1 2025 as car performs as intended
“Well, it's been a lot calmer than the last few years, mainly because the car is what we intended it to be.”
Andrew Shovlin has described Mercedes’ start to the 2025 F1 season as “a lot calmer than the last few years”, highlighting the team's significant progress.
Mercedes have struggled to get to grips with the ground effect regulations since the start of 2022.
The eight-time F1 constructors’ champions picked up one victory across 2022 and 2023.
While they slipped back to fourth in 2024, they managed four race wins.
The W15 (2024 car) was peaky, only performing at low downforce tracks or cool track temperatures.
Its successor - the W16 - has been a consistent performer so far in 2025, albeit a little bit off McLaren in raw pace terms.
Speaking in Friday’s FIA press conference, Shovlin reflected on an encouraging start for Mercedes this year.
“Well, it's been a lot calmer than the last few years, mainly because the car is what we intended it to be,” Shovlin explained.
“It hasn't really got the vices that we've had in a couple of previous years and that's down to doing good work over the winter. Good work last year to try and understand the problems.
“So far, we haven't seen many circuits, but it's worked well over the ones we have and through a range of conditions. So it's good.
“There's clearly a gap to McLaren that we need to chip away at, but that looks more like just a normal development race that we need to get stuck into rather than trying to get on top of any of the handling vices that we’ve had.”
George Russell “relaxed in his position”
With Lewis Hamilton leaving the team at the end of last year to join Ferrari, Russell is now Mercedes’ clear leader.
He’s started the season in impressive fashion, scoring back-to-back podium finishes in Australia and China.
Shovlin sees Russell as “relaxed in his position in the team now” following Hamilton’s departure.
“Certainly within the team, he's very calm,” Shovlin added. “He seems very confident. He's done a great job in the first two races, so that's been really encouraging.
“He just seems to be very relaxed in his position in the team now and he's just going about getting the points, trying to qualify as well as he can. Front row in China was very encouraging.
“He's pushing us hard to improve and he's doing a lot of work himself.”
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