Mercedes has been consistent in saying its W15 is a step forward compared to the recalcitrant W13 and W14 cars with which it opened F1’s latest ground-effect era in 2022 and 2023, but mainly in the sense that its handling is more predictable.
As he addressed the media in the Bahrain paddock ahead of this weekend’s season opener, Russell was asked if there was any specific hangover from the weaknesses Mercedes’ previous cars still being felt in the W15.
“I would say this year's car is a totally different race car,” he replied.
“To the point that the things we learned from last year in the way we were setting the car up, we will need to approach it differently this year. So, there's a lot to learn about this.
“And 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.”
Source: Autosport