George Russell advises Mercedes to ‘focus on the basics’ to optimize the lackluster W15 ahead of the Miami GP

Mercedes has so far managed to amass only 52 points in the Constructors Championship.

George Russell advises Mercedes to ‘focus on the basics’ to optimize the lackluster W15 ahead of the Miami GP

George Russell (via imago)

Mercedes has failed to produce an impressive challenger during the third year of the ongoing ground-effect era. Brackley had high hopes for the W15 during pre-season testing. However, as depicted by the disappointing performance, the car is mediocre in pace. Hence, George Russell advised the team to focus on the basics of the challenger.

Mercedes’ W15 was supposed to follow a ‘conventional’ route for development over the season. However, the lackluster performance has disabled Brackley’s chances of securing the runner-up spot early on. Toto Wolff recently explained that the W15 will receive multiple updates ahead of the Miami GP in order to extract maximum benefits.

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Speaking on these updates by Miami GP, George Russell produced confidence and optimism. The Briton was curious to see what benefits the update would put forth for the German constructor. However, Russell was not hesitant to acknowledge that the updates wouldn’t be a ‘silver bullet,’ providing a quick pace benefit to the team’s disappointing challenger.

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Let's see in Miami, we've got some upgrades coming to the car, Let's see what we can do. I think there is no silver bullet.
George Russell said, as reported by racingnews365.com.

Russell highlighted that the team just needed to keep on adding performance and focusing on the basics. Mercedes crew needed to give more time to the wind tunnel and the CFD and even add more downforce to the challenger. Increasing downforce would help stabilize the car at higher speeds, an issue that the team has been facing recently. Hence, the path to improving the challenger was simple for the team.

We just need to keep on adding performance and focusing on the basics, which is in the wind tunnel and the CFD, just adding downforce - maybe sometimes it's as simple as that.
George Russell noted.

George Russell claims Mercedes changed the concept of chassis development multiple times

George Russell highlighted that the team was aware of the fact that they just needed to increase the downforce on the car. Additionally, the he pointed out how Mercedes changed philosophies and concepts while developing the W15. Hence, German outfit just needed to retrace the path of development of the chassis and figure out what went so wrong with the development.

I think we've understood enough so far that we just need to add downforce, We've changed philosophies, we've changed concepts quite a few times now over the last two years.
George Russell mentioned.
George Russell
George Russell (Via: IMAGO)

Apart from this, the 26-year-old highlighted that the concept of developing a challenger didn’t really matter. The chassis just needed enough amounts of downforce and it would be enough to provide better results. The limitations thereafter increasing the downforce could easily be dealt with by the team. Such updates would ensure quick benefits for Brackley’s performance in the 2024 season.

My personal view is it doesn’t matter what concept you're on, you just need to have enough downforce as possible and deal with the limitations thereafter.
George Russell concluded.

Mercedes has great hopes for an improvement in performance after bringing in the updates at the Miami GP. The outfit is currently in fourth in the constructors’ championship with the ever declining hopes of championship contention. Hence, the team needs to desperately rediscover their old winning form and provide a tough battle to the mighty Red Bulls.

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