George Russell preparation regime emerges ahead of debut Mercedes season

George Russell joins Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes

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George Russell has revealed how is preparing for the new F1 season. The 23-year-old is set to begin his first season with Mercedes after signing for the eight-time constructors champions last year.

He will drive alongside Lewis Hamilton and has replaced Valtteri Bottas, who now has a seat at Alfa Romeo which was vacated by the now retired Kimi Raikkonen.

This is a big step up for the young star, who was languishing near the bottom of the grid at Williams, but he has done everything he can to be ready for the challenge.

During his first ever interview as an official member of the Mercedes team, Russell said: “So far it’s been a great winter.

“I spent nine days in Lanzarote for my training camp which is something I’ve done on a yearly basis, which is a great way to start my season.”

He added: “I’ve spent plenty of days in the factory with the engineers going through a lot of presentations on what the car looks like.

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“Most importantly on the simulator, getting to grips with the new car and understanding the limitations and trying to direct the development of where we need to improve.

“That’s been also really exciting with this new opportunity with the new regulations to try and get on top of that as fast as possible.”

As Russell mentioned, all teams will need to adapt to a new set of regulations next year.

The new rules have been designed to reduce the level of aerodynamic downforce on cars with the intention of reducing the effect of dirty air in order to promote closer racing.

Mercedes will be desperate to remain the sport’s dominant force, with the widespread nature of the regulation changes potentially able to shake up the grid next year.

The 2022 regulations are also set to significantly simplify the top-body aerodynamics.

That means less downforce from the firmly-regulated front and rear wings, which are tightly-prescribed in order to eliminate the outwash aerodynamics that have made F1’s turbulence problems worse over the past decade or so.

In order to enable better racing and remove the prospect of dirty air having an impact on overtaking, the aerodynamic phenomenon known as ‘ground effect’, will help to reduce the “catastrophic downforce loss.”

Sharing his thoughts on the new Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E Performance car, Russell pointed out the many differences between the new model and previous ones and that this season will be one of transitions as drivers adjust to the new regulations.

“It’s a very different car to the previous era and the characteristics of how the downforce is, it’s completely different,” Russell began.

“So we’re still learning as we’re going and there’s still a huge amount of improvements to be made to make it as nice as possible to drive.

“I think it’s going to be a year of development, I think everyone wants to go into the first race and have the fastest car possible.

“But what will be more important is understanding what your limitations are and how you’re going to improve from those limitations to build yourself the best foundation possible.”

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