"Our competitors have looked much stronger than they did in Barcelona," claims Russell
Although Mercedes have been tipped to enjoy a competitive edge over the field as the sport embarks on a new technical era, George Russell dismisses those claims, suggessting that "our competitors have looked much stronger than they did in Barcelona."
The first Bahrain pre‑season test drew to a close last Friday with a far more positive day for the team, as George Russell and Kimi Antonelli shared driving duties and finally enjoyed the kind of uninterrupted running that had eluded them earlier in the week.
After two reliability‑affected days, the team completed 78 laps with Russell and 64 with Antonelli on Day 3, marking their most productive outing of the test.
The morning began with Russell focusing on single‑lap performance work before transitioning into high‑fuel running and a full race simulation. His pace was strong enough to top the timesheets in the morning session, a welcome sign after the setbacks of the previous two days.
Russell was open about the challenges the team faced earlier in the week, but he also highlighted the significance of Friday’s progress.
Reflecting on his final day behind the wheel, Russell said: “We’ve enjoyed a much more productive day in Bahrain than the previous two have been. That was important given how much running we had missed on days one and two.
"We were able to work through some single lap and high fuel running, completing a race distance to end our morning. We’ve struggled with reliability this week and our performance hasn’t been where we want it to be.
"Today, the car felt better balanced than previous days and our pace was reasonable. That said, it is clear that our competitors have looked much stronger than they did in Barcelona and that we have work to do to catch them up.
"We will put in the hours ahead of next week’s second and final pre-season test to improve and hopefully we can get closer to our rivals ahead of the first race in Melbourne.”
