After bidding farewell to a car “with so many flaws,” George Russell believes that a “clean slate” Mercedes for 2024 will finally be able to challenge Red Bull.
Russell only managed his second podium of the season—his third place finish in the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi—due to Mercedes’ W14’s unreliable performance throughout the season.
Mercedes realized early on that the car was not competitive enough, but the budget cap prevented them from making the necessary fundamental changes.
This means that the W15 will be very different from its predecessor, and Russell hopes that it will be able to push Red Bull and Max Verstappen even further than they have during the previous two years of their dominance.
Russell, who placed ninth in the drivers’ standings and a startling 400 points behind Verstappen, declared, “We’re taking a clean slate into next year’s car.”
The good news is that we don’t have a hard time understanding why we’re lagging behind Red Bull. This car has so many problems that we can see.
This instills a great deal of motivation and zeal in every employee at the factory to pursue these issues and discover solutions, which we believe will pave the way for success in the upcoming year.
“We’ll be in a better position come Bahrain than we were in Bahrain this year, of course, but I expect Red Bull to make a step again.”
Russell, at least, acknowledged that he was “really pleased” with his podium finish in Abu Dhabi, capping “a really challenging season.”
From a personal perspective, he stated that he had “let the side down a couple of times this year,” but that the main reason the year had been so tough was that “not getting the results we probably deserve.”
“The pace has been really strong so many times, but the results just kept eluding us,” Russell continued.
That was nearly the case in Abu Dhabi, where Sergio Perez, who was given a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Lando Norris of McLaren, was barely able to push Russell off the podium by more than a second.
Russell remarked, “I guess lady luck was on our side a little bit with Checo’s penalty.” “However, I believe that more than made up for this year’s other races.”
Russell’s third place finish was even more sweet after he appeared to be experiencing physical discomfort during the race, as he was occasionally heard coughing.
Before, the British man claimed to have been “really ill,” first developing a fever during the weekend of the Grand Prix in Las Vegas, during which he “couldn’t sleep and just felt awful.”
“And then I’ve had a terrible cough that stayed with me all week and in the car,” he continued. Every lap I was coughing, but you can’t breathe when you’re strapped into a car. It is not possible for you to exhale deeply to clear your cough.
It was simply with me all the time. It was quite a miserable day. I was therefore happy to bring it home when I noticed the checkered flag.
