George Russell enjoys his first days as an official Mercedes team driver while Lewis Hamilton continues his silence. The young Briton began working on the Brackley simulator to have a first contact with what will be the W13 , the star brand’s single-seater for the 2022 season that, according to rumors, would return to the usual greyish color, resigning to the black that has characterized Mercedes in the last two seasons of Formula 1.
For Russell, who had already been with the German team, it was the first real day of work in 2022, after driving the W12 in the Pirelli tests in Abu Dhabi. The 24-year-old Englishman comes to the top team after three seasons at Williams, which saw him promoted to the team that has held the constructors’ world championship for eight consecutive years.
The #63 is no stranger to Brackley, having raced with them at the 2020 Sakhir GP in the W11, when he came on for Hamilton because the seven-time world champion tested positive for COVID-19 . Russell managed to qualify on the front row on his Mercedes debut, just 26 thousandths behind pole man Valtteri Bottas. The Englishman took the lead until an error at the pit stop and a puncture relegated him to ninth position, although that helped him score his first points in Formula 1.
After a long apprenticeship, the Briton is looking forward to starting the 2022 season, and has no intention of starting a season as Hamilton’s squire. His first day in the simulator was important to kick off a cycle in which he hopes to become one of the protagonists of next season’s world championship, which will debut the new technical regulations for single-seaters.
Brackley engineers have been able to assess Russell’s day in the simulator with the highly anticipated W13, and the new power unit is very well received. The engine seems to have compensated for the loss caused by the E10 gasoline, while there are still some doubts about the chassis, which changes due to the regulatory revolution. The car is still under development in the factory and, as in all teams, doubts arise about the decisions that have been made in the winter, since there is no reliable data to compare with rivals.
