George Russell suggests Mercedes ‘need to improve reliability’ as he explains ‘tallest hurdle’ that the team are facing

George Russell believes that Mercedes need to “keep on improving reliability” after experiencing some gremlins during the Bahrain test, with the Briton also suggesting that race starts could be the “tallest hurdle” to the team’s potential.

Kimi Antonelli saw his running on the final morning of pre-season testing reduced when the W17 stopped out on track due to a pneumatic issue, while the Italian also suffered some technical problems during the first test one week earlier.

Speaking to the media on Friday morning, Russell conceded that there have been strong points for Mercedes across the two tests but also acknowledged that there is room for improvement, particularly in terms of reliability.

“I think there definitely have been positives, but for every time there is an issue it does definitely set you back quite a lot,” he explained.

“Unfortunately for Kimi this morning, he had an issue on track and he lost a good couple of hours, and the first test in Bahrain last week we also had quite a few issues.

“There are positives to take – the car is feeling good, the new power units are feeling fast and we’re making improvements every single day. However, we need to keep on improving the reliability.”

Russell went on to reflect on how race starts are another area of focus for Mercedes, with the 28-year-old adding: “I think we’ve got a lot of potential beneath us, but to win a race you’ve also got to get off the line quite well, and I think the two [practice] starts I’ve made were worse than my worst-ever start in Formula 1 – Lewis [Hamilton] down in P11 got into P1.

“So at this stage I don’t think it matters how quick you are – the thing that’s going to trip you up is going to be that tallest hurdle, and that’s what we’re trying to get our heads around right now and we’re stumbling on some at the moment.”

Russell spoke highly of Red Bull’s performance during the first Bahrain test and the British driver continued to praise the Milton Keynes-based squad’s energy deployment one week on, as he looked ahead to how the picture could evolve at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

“Their deployment still definitely looks the best on the grid, which is kudos to them and I think it was a bit of a surprise to everybody, so I think let’s see come Melbourne how things shake up,” said Russell.

“I think the Mercedes-powered teams have made a lot of improvement since Day 1 of Bahrain last week, so that gap has closed drastically. But we’re obviously Day 6 of Bahrain testing now, whereas in Melbourne you’ve got three hours of practice, and that’s the main point of the concern.”