Russell on Mercedes’ F1 2022 car: “Huge amount of improvement to be made”

Mercedes will unveil the all-new W13 to the world on February 18 as it looks to win an unprecedented ninth consecutive constructors’ championship in 2022.

Russell makes the move up from Williams after three seasons, partnering seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton. 

Hamilton will attend Mercedes’ launch next week after months of speculation surrounding his future following the controversial end of the season.

In an interview on Mercedes’ website, Russell spoke about the new challenges the teams face amid the new regulations for this year.

“First impressions of W13 have been interesting,” Russell said. It’s a very different car to the previous era and the characteristic of how the downforce is produced is completely different so we’re still learning as we’re going. 

“There’s still a huge amount of improvement to be made to bring everything together to make it as nice as possible to drive, which I foresee a lot of people being in the same boat because we’re just learning so much day after day whether it’s in the wind tunnel or in the simulator.”

Despite moving to a new team for 2022, Russell feels that his previous involvement with Mercedes - having been a young driver over the past few years - has made settling in at the Brackley team seamless.

“Because I spent so much time with the team as a junior driver prior to joining Williams in Formula 1 I feel like I know everyone so well already so we’re just straight to business on the important bits and bots to understand the car, to understand the challenges, and to try and prepare as best as possible for the season ahead,” Russell added.