George Russell claims Mercedes W15 is ‘designed around’ Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton
According to George Russell the new W15 is designed by keeping the seven-time world champion in mind.
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Toto Wolff, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton (Via IMAGO)
The Formula One world was shocked to learn at the beginning of February that Lewis Hamilton would be joining Ferrari in 2025. The seven-time world champions’ current campaign is his final one with Mercedes. Mercedes’ compromised car from the previous seasons produced only one victory hence they introduced radical changes ahead of the 2024 season for W15.
Mercedes decided to rectify and make up for all the mistakes they made in the car’s design and give drivers a car that will help them return to the top for the upcoming season. Before the Bahrain Grand Prix, George Russell talked about Mercedes’ 2024 car, and said that he confirmed that most of the changes made to the car were because of the suggestions from Hamilton.
I think we hit the ground in a good place but ultimately, there’s only one thing that matters and that’s the lap time. I think Lewis and I have put a huge amount of work into helping steer the team and the direction we want to go in. Obviously, with Lewis’ experience, a lot of the car has been designed around his wishes – the car being sat further rearwards than we were last year and the Red Bull-esque side pods and a slightly different steering rack. It is good the team has been listening to that but we need to see if that translates into lap time.George Russell said, as reported by silverarrows.net.
Russell added that he trusts the aerodynamicists and designers to deliver. As the driver’s job is to maximise the package, or what they are given. Russell also revealed the difference in feedback between him and his teammate. He said that Hamilton discussed the seating position extensively while he a concerned about the unstable rear.
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George Russell reveals Mercedes W15’s primary problem
During the off-season, Mercedes made updates to their Formula 1 car, introducing an inventive W15 with an adjustable front suspension and a front wing made of legality wires. Mercedes has maintained that, mainly because of its more consistent handling, the W15 is a markedly better car than the W13 and W14 cars it debuted in the most recent ground-effect era of Formula One in 2022 and 2023.
During the press day, before the Bahrain paddock opened for the first race of the season, George Russell was asked if there was any lingering weakness from Mercedes’s past cars in the W15. He stated that this year’s car is far different from the car from previous seasons. While talking about the car he added,
It feels much closer to how a race car should feel. But the one area that we need to continue to work on is probably the bouncing that we're seeing. We got caught up with a bit of bouncing [in testing] last week. We were pushing the car really aggressively. But as I said, we're dealing with a totally different beast this year, whereas 2022, 2023 they were both cut from the same cloth.George Russell said.
The crux of Russell’s bouncing problem lies in braking stability, rather than the porpoising and bouncing problems Mercedes encountered during the 2022 campaign with the ‘zeropod’ W13. While talking about his faith in Mercedes 2024, Russell stated that with early issues regarding W15, the team also lacks the downforce.
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Justin P Joy
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