George Russell revealed ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix that Mercedes have a “few more little things” to introduce before the conclusion of the season, to hopefully improve the performance of the W14.
Mercedes head to Suzuka having shown strong pace at the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend, where Lewis Hamilton finished third after Russell crashed on the final lap.
Russell ended up in the wall on the final lap after challenging Lando Norris for second, in what was a frenetic end to the most physically demanding race of the season.
Whilst Russell was deeply disappointed by his error, he has entered this weekend full of optimism, partly because the side have more upgrades to introduce to support their learnings ahead of next year.
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“In all honesty, there’ll be a few more little things to come towards the end of the season, which will aid our learning into next season,” Russell revealed ahead of this weekend, as reported by GPFans.com.
2023 has been a campaign full of learning for Mercedes, who finally discovered the correct development path after scrapping their ‘zero-sidepod’ philosophy at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Since then, Russell believes the Silver Arrows have “made some good gains”, with it now being clear to the Brackley-based team that they “made some mistakes” before the new aerodynamic regulations started in 2022.
“Yeah, I think we’ve made some good gains this season,” Russell added.
“I think it’s clear that we made some mistakes ahead of the 2022 season, and again over this winter, but I’m definitely confident that these mistakes are going to aid us and help us a lot for the future.”
Based on Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2, the Japanese GP might be a challenging one for Mercedes.
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Russell was the top Mercedes driver on Friday by some margin, after ending the opening day in fifth.
Hamilton, on the other hand, ended Friday all the way down in P14, with his best lap having been around half a second slower than Russell’s.
Looking ahead to Saturday, Russell appears to be in a much better position than Hamilton in regard to how comfortable they feel in the W14.