Russell believes in the Mercedes W15: "It's not the diva it was"

It was a year ago, also in Bahrain. The test was barely underway when Lewis Hamilton knew enough: 'This is not a winning car,' the seven-time world champion realised then. In hindsight, he was right: with the W14, the German team did finish second among constructors, but a Grand Prix victory did not materialise. At least with the W15, Mercedes hope to be more competitive.

Do they have a winning car in 2024? George Russell, who drove the car on the opening day of testing, could not say that. But: "You can definitely tell from the very beginning if the car is an improvement and if it's nice to drive. It definitely is an improvement. There's no doubt about that. But you could have the worst car to drive but if it's faster than everybody else, you'll be happy with it," Russell said.

He then explained that it was "pleasurable drive". "I had a good feeling within the car. But we know that all of the other teams have made a good step forward. Right now, it's definitely far too early to say. We have a huge mountain to climb to catch up what Red Bull were doing last year and how far ahead of everybody else they were."

So unlike Hamilton 12 months ago, Russell did have a nice feeling with the car. "We need to wait and see. But we've definitely got a much better platform to build upon. It's not the diva that it was in the last two years."