Mercedes W14 'looks better, but we don’t know if that means it’s also faster', opines George Russell

Mercedes driver George Russell feels that the W14 looked 'better' than the W13 in terms of its handling and ride quality, but he is unsure if it is 'faster' than the 2022 challenger.

After the first two practice sessions, the W14 looked a much better car than the W13 but did not look anywhere close to its rivals Red Bull and Mercedes on Friday.

Speaking to the media after his practice runs, Russell said:

"W14 is a car with a very different balance sheet from the tests. Its usage window is completely different, it looks better, but we don’t know if that means it’s also faster.”

However, his teammate Lewis Hamilton presented a much gloomier picture of the performance of the car, adding:

“We are at the same starting point as last year, if not further back. Last year we made good progress, and the gap wasn’t as big as it is now.”

"I’m trying everything I can out there" - Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton mentioned that they are a long way off the top and revealed that the team needs to do a lot more to compete against Red Bull and Ferrari.

Speaking to +, he said:

“We found out we are a long way off. We kind of knew that a little bit in the test, but it’s a big gap. I’m trying everything I can out there [but looking to] Red Bull, just looking at the long runs they are a second-a-half faster. So, we’ve got a lot to work on."

He added:

“I think I got the car to the best place I can get. Set-up-wise, we can continue to tweak a little here and there but it’s going to be small bits here and there, which is milliseconds. It’s not going to be the closing of the gap of a second [to Red Bull]."

"Nonetheless, we’ll just keep our heads down tonight, we’ll go through the data, continue to work, and try and progress tomorrow. But we’ve got to try and find out if there is any way we can find a performance overnight. Do I believe we can close the gap at some stage? Yes. But I think it’s quite hard with the concept we have.”

It will be interesting to see where Mercedes lines up after the end of qualifying on Saturday and if they will be in contention for a podium on race day.