For the first time since 2012, Mercedes are entering an F1 season without Lewis Hamilton. The 7-time Champion’s departure has fast-tracked the promotion of Kimi Antonelli, who alongside George Russell forms a brand new partnership at Brackley.
After three years alongside Hamilton, Russell will be expected to lead Mercedes for the foreseeable future – at least until Antonelli adapts to the demands of Formula 1.
After claiming two victories last season, Russell believes he is ready to challenge for a World Championship.
The question is whether the Mercedes W16 will represent a sizable step forward from its predecessor.
Russell: Mercedes have learned from our mistakes
It is one thing to lack the performance to fight for wins. It is quite another, as Mercedes experienced in 2024, to fail in optimising the potential of your package.
At various points last season, Mercedes were faster than anyone else. Aside from their four victories (Austin, Silverstone, Spa and Las Vegas), Toto Wolff’s team also fought for wins at various venues.
The issue for the German constructor was never raw pace. Instead, like many others, they struggled to create a wide enough operating window to perform consistently.
Many teams have been plagued by discrepancies between the wind tunnel and the simulator during these regulations.
Because of this, upgrade effectiveness has taken a considerable drop over the last few seasons.
Even Red Bull, who seemed to have a better understanding than anyone else about these cars, found themselves in this dilemma last season.
For Mercedes, it is essential they ensure the W16 is not affected by the variables that so easily destabilised it last season.
Speaking on this topic, George Russell showed optimism about the team’s progress:
“I think it’s going to be a significant change this year, to be honest,” Sky Sports quotes him as saying.
“Every year we’ve uncovered a problem, we’ve solved it, and it’s created a new one.
“We’ve probably been a lot more disciplined with every change that we’ve made and been more thorough than ever in terms of the simulator running. Just to ensure we’re not going to fall into a new trap.”
Everything to prove
Having recently acquired Valtteri Bottas as a reserve driver, there is no shortage of talent in the Mercedes driver roster.
There is an excess of talent, both from an engineering and driver perspective, at the Brackley-based operation.
Still, it is unclear if James Allison and his technical team have finally mastered the nuances and technicalities of these ground-effect cars.
From George Russell’s perspective though, good work has been done:
“And so far, it’s a reasonable step, obviously you have no idea what everyone else is doing. It’s going to be, I feel like, quite an interesting season with how people deploy the resources between 2025 and 2026.
“I’m more confident this year that with the work we’ve done on the sim. We’ve got some really great simulator drivers putting in lots of effort.
“Kimi’s been doing some really great work as well. I’m much more confident we’re not going to fall into a trap as we have done in the previous years.”
