The 2022 pre-season testing in Bahrain began with an eye toward the Mercedes W13’s radical sidepod design. The Germans presented a car completely different from the rest, and that set off alarms in their rivals.
However, as the morning session progressed with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel, the car’s balance problems with constant braking passes and obvious porpoising caused everyone in the paddock to question whether the concept worked.
The seven-time world champion finished in 11th place at the end of the day, while his new teammate, George Russell, finished with the ninth fastest time, quite a distance from one of the favorites for this 2022, Ferrari.
The 24-year-old driver, after getting off the W13 before a red flag caused by Checo Pérez a few minutes from the checkered flag, gave his opinion on the design that his team had brought to Shakir.
“It looks interesting, but it’s not about how you learn about it, it’s about how fast it goes. It caught the attention of a lot of people this morning, and that’s a source of pride for me and the team, who are driving innovation.” with hard work,” Russell acknowledged.
“The blood, sweat and tears that go into seeing something spectacular take place is unbelievable,” he explained in reference to W13 . “But like I said, we have to see if he’s quick on track.”
When he was put on the table if he was worried about last season’s main rival in the fight for the titles, Red Bull, the Englishman put the pressure on another team.
“At the moment, Ferrari looks stronger every stint on low fuel, and on consecutive laps for very solid. If you look at their concept car, it’s very different to what we have at Mercedes and what Red Bull has, so time will tell, it’s unknown,” he said.
“I think all the teams are trying to improve the downforce and increase it on their cars,” Russell continued. “The pace of development is brutal for all the teams, and I think we’re going to see that over the course of the year.”
“These new rules came in for this course, but we look up and down the grid, our car, the Red Bull car, the Ferrari car, even the Williams car, they have drastic differences, so it’s great to see.”
The new member of Mercedes continued talking about what he expects for these tests in Bahrain and the start of 2022: “These tests are focused on what the team wants to achieve and the elements to investigate. The more knowledge you have, the better It will be in the form that you get to for the rest of the season.”
“As drivers, we always want to go after performance, to be at the top of the time table, but you’re not going to benefit in the long run if you focus on that here at Shakir, so you have to work like a real driver. , with the team and do what they tell you,” he said.
George Russell faces a new challenge, that of being on the other side of the box from a seven-time F1 world champion, although he believes that he is adapting well: “I feel comfortable, the team is great, I have known them for time, and we just have to get down to business.
“Everything seems very natural, with Lewis [Hamilton] I have a good relationship and we are on the same side with the limitations of the car, so I think it is important to have two drivers with similar feedback, as they will both be on the same road. address,” he concluded.
