George Russell reveals details about Mercedes’ ’emergency meeting’ following disappointing Bahrain GP
There were reports that Mercedes held a 'emergency meeting' in the wake of the Bahrain GP, and George Russell has revealed some details regarding it.
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George Russell
If the Bahrain Grand Prix is any indication, then Mercedes have not made any significant progress towards Red Bull. At least in terms of the result, they even seem to have gone backward from 2022. At last season’s Bahrain GP, they clearly had the third-best race machinery, but this time around, they looked fourth-best – behind even their (engine) customer team, Aston Martin! This time around, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished P5 and P7.
As was the case last year, they were pushed up a position because of a retirement from one of the frontrunners ahead. That time, it had been the Red Bull duo; this time, it was Charles Leclerc. After the race, Mercedes admitted defeat with their ‘zeropods’ car concept, and Toto Wolff criticized the car, and publicly called the race “one of the worst days in racing” for the team. There were also reports that the technical director, Mike Elliott, had been handed an “ultimatum” in an emergency meeting.
The existence of the meeting, held in Brackley after the Bahrain GP, has been confirmed. George Russell has revealed some details about the meeting, where the team delivered an “honest assessment” of their situation. He said: “We all came together and had some very good, honest, open conversations. A lot of the questions were answered as to how we got ourselves in this position in the first place.”
“Plus, what are we going to do in short term, and medium term, to get out of it? What path do we want to be on? Those changes are already in place, of getting on the track that we believe is going to bring us back to victory.” While he did not reveal the specifics of the meeting (as is to be expected), his words also seem to indicate that a shift towards a new car concept for Mercedes is underway.
George Russell: Mercedes “need to change lanes as soon as possible”
Of course, now it seems pretty clear that Mercedes are shifting their focus to a new concept. That will take time, and at least a part of the season will be sacrificed. So it’s hard to see them competing for the title in 2023. But there’s no guarantee that the other concept will be a ‘winner’ either. George Russell acknowledged this: “We know a change of concept doesn’t come without risks.”
“But,” he added: “I think we all feel like we’ve got enough knowledge and information now to say that we weren’t on the right tracks, and the targets that we set over the winter weren’t the right ones. We need to change lanes as soon as possible. Those decisions have already been made. And we’ve already started working towards them, as of probably Tuesday last week. How quickly that can be brought to the car, how quickly that’s going to translate into performance is another question.”
It’ll be interesting to see how this works out for Mercedes, and if they can return to being championship contenders in the near future. But there’s still room for improvement in 2023, even if most of their resources might go towards developing a new car concept. And of course, it’s still possible that things will “come together” for them on one particular weekend. That happened in Sao Paulo last season, and Russell took his maiden victory.
In case you missed it:
- George Russell: Mercedes may have to “sacrifice” 2023 in order to “get a car that can fight”
- George Russell backs “real benefit” Mick Schumacher to make F1 return
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)