Russell warns of rivals after Red Bull and Ferrari's strong Barcelona performance

13:15, 02 Feb

Updated: 13:17, 02 Feb

byKada Sarkozi

George Russell remains cautious about Mercedes having the upper hand despite completing positive test days in Barcelona.

"It's still very early days but quoting Toto, ‘it doesn't look like it's a turd,’ which is a bonus."

"I've driven the car for three days and it's still very early days but quoting Toto, ‘it doesn't look like it's a turd,’ which is a bonus," Russell said to a select group of media, including GPblog, about the W17.

The German team showed great promise during the first pre-season test held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, completing plenty of laps as well.

"In the early days like this, you can sort of highlight those negatives early on. We don't believe it is. But is it a car that can produce a world championship? It's still way too early to see."

Russell driving the W17 in Barcelona - Photo: Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

As he did last week, Russell once again praised rival power unit manufacturers. He began by pointing out the impressive performance of the new Red Bull Ford engine.

"We've been quite surprised by what we've seen from some of our rivals, especially on the Red Bull power unit side, that looks very impressive considering they're a completely new outfit and reliable as well, so kudos to them. We'll have to wait and see if the car lives up to the expectation."

Russell highlights key outcome of the Barcelona test

The British driver explained that so far, the W17 works like they expected after the simulator work, but highlighted that unforeseen things, such as how porpoising became a factor in 2022, cannot be ruled out.

"You couldn't discount everything right now. But that's why I think we left Barcelona with a positive feeling because the car reacted as we anticipated.

"The numbers we're seeing from the aero on the car match what we see back on the simulator, how the car is handling is matching how it feels on the simulator. So this is something we've not really experienced since 2021 as a team."

"This is something we've not really experienced since 2021 as a team."

- George Russell

He continued cautiously: "We're sort of ticking the boxes of everything that we want to tick. But we can't discount our rivals because, as I said, there was a lot of talk around the Red Bull power unit not being up to standard year one.

"From what we've seen so far, they've definitely delivered. Ferrari power unit looks reliable, they did lots of laps not far behind us over the course of a test and from a power unit side Haas did loads of laps as well with the Ferrari engine so the truth is there could be a good fight on our hands, but we're satisfied with what we've experienced so far."

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