Russell admits Mercedes 'a step behind rivals' as F1 testing ends

Red Bull ended day three in Bahrain on top with Max Verstappen setting a blistering series of laps at the end of the session.

Up until that point, the general consensus was that Ferrari was the team to beat going into next weekend’s season-opener with both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz consistently competitive in both tests.

Assessing Mercedes’ performance across the three days in Bahrain, Russell thinks Red Bull and Ferrari are “a step ahead”.

“I think it just depends how hard you’re pushing the car really, and we’re trying to get every last bit of performance out of it and just trying to test those limits, but it’s definitely bouncing around from within, it’s not the comfiest in all honesty, but I don’t really care about comfort if the performance is there, but at the moment the performance isn’t there,” Russell explained after the final day in Bahrain.

“We do seem a step behind our rivals, and we do have a lot of work to do between now and next week to understand because in every condition the Red Bull and Ferrari seem a step ahead of us.”

Despite Mercedes’ apparent performance deficit, Russell is confident there’s enough potential in the W13 to get on level terms with Red Bull and Ferrari during the season.

“I don’t think they’re exceptional, I think we’re probably not as competitive as we’d like to be honest,” Russell said. “The Ferrari and Red Bull are in the natural position and we’re a step… their delta from the front to the midfield and to the back is probably correct, we’re just a little further behind than we’d like.

“I believe the guys are going to get to the bottom of it, I think there is potential there, but we just need to figure a way to unlock that performance.”

Mercedes caught the attention of the paddock by introducing a radical sidepod design ahead of the first day of running in Bahrain.

Russell dismissed any questions that the new design was adding to the difficulties the team were facing in getting the car into the right window.

“Not really, from the outside it looks drastically different, but looks aren’t everything is what many people say,” Russell added. “It’s still the same fundamental car underneath the skin, it still has the same fundamental issues we faced in Barcelona.

“We probably optimised the performance a bit more in Barcelona than we did in Bahrain, but nevertheless we’re struggling to find how to unlock a bit more. Red Bull are looking incredibly strong, Ferrari very solid, and we have some work to do.”