George Russell says the start to F1 2025 season has been better than expected for Mercedes, as Toto Wolff notes of where the Mercedes car works.
After how Mercedes has been performing since the 2022 regulations took over, not many put them high on the list as a challenger to McLaren. The German outfit was not as confident as well. But after the start to the current season, they are second in the championship after six rounds.
They are not close to McLaren though, but have good margin on Red Bull and Ferrari. On the drivers’ end, Russell is in the mix in the Top 4 after four podium finishes in six races. His teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli is not far behind as well in sixth after a good start to his F1 campaign.
This has certainly surprised Mercedes. “I think it’s probably better than our pre-season expectations, to be honest,” said Russell. “The pace has fallen out where we thought – that step behind McLaren and then a close fight with Red Bull and Ferrari.
“We’ve been doing really well to get those podiums, but I don’t think it necessarily means we are the second fastest team. I think sort of on average we’re the third fastest team. We saw Charles had a great race in Saudi Arabia and obviously Max [is there always to], but we’ve just been nicely consistent and picking up points.”
The cooler condition certainly helps Mercedes to perform as opposed to hotter races, where degradation is bad. Another reason for their success is that the car is better balanced than last season, with the window of operation a touch larger to extract the maximum.
“Much better, so we were really cold in the ice, arctic conditions in Silverstone, we were good in Spa, we were good in Las Vegas,” started Wolff to media. “So you can definitely still see a kind of similar pattern.
“Now I think we solved a lot of balance issues from last year. So front and rear are in a much better spot. But you know when it’s hot, the balance is not where it needs to be ideally. Then McLaren is just better.”
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