George Russell confident that Mercedes will not make the same mistakes in W15 as its F1 predecessor

George Russell is positive about Mercedes' development of their upcoming F1 car for the 2024 season. After yet another unsatisfactory run in 2023, the Silver Arrows are back to the drawing board to build a championship-winning car.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Russell admitted how the team rushed the development of the W14, jumping to conclusions without carefully going through all the possible scenarios.

“I think last year it was all a little bit rushed. We didn’t have all the information to hand; we may have jumped to a couple of conclusions without thoroughly going through the consequences," he said.

"And we learned when the car hit the ground this year that we made a step forward in some regards, but it came with a lot of baggage, and we hadn’t taken that into consideration,” he added.

George Russell then praised the team for gathering all the data from 2023 to understand how to move forward with future cars.

The Mercedes driver claims that the team put all their faith in a particular concept which failed to deliver. He is confident that the eight-time constructors' world champions won't make the same mistakes in 2024 with the W15.

“So, I think we’ve done a great job to truly understand what we need [for 2024]. We’ve obviously had a further 12 months’ experience to further understand the car and what brings the performance," he said.

"I think last year we put all our eggs in one basket and that wasn’t a basket that provided the performance we were expecting...[I’m] definitely confident we won’t fall into some of the same traps we did this [last] year,” he added.

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"I want to be ahead of him" - George Russell on Lewis Hamilton

George Russell recently claimed that he wants to be better than the level at which Lewis Hamilton is. While Russell's first year alongside the seven-time world champion was great, he experienced a slump in 2023, where Hamilton ended up several places above Russell in the drivers' championship.

Speaking on his performance compared to Lewis Hamilton, George Russell told The Telegraph:

“I’ve been on Lewis’ level, on average, throughout this year. And I’m not satisfied with just being on his level. I want to be ahead of him. But I’ve also got to be realistic. I’m going up against the greatest driver of all time. He’s definitely not a bad benchmark.

"And, you know, I think qualy statistics, if you include sprint races, we’re exactly the same. And pace-wise, we’re generally the same as well."

Lewis Hamilton ended the 2023 F1 season in third place with 234 points, while Russell ended up eighth with 175 points.