Following Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari, Russell takes over as staff chief alongside new team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Antonelli, an 18-year-old Italian considered some of the prodigious younger abilities within the sport, mentioned: “Winter preparation has been fairly intense. Actually attention-grabbing. Attempting to deal with as many issues as potential, need to keep away from arriving to Melbourne to have some dangerous shock.”
Russell mentioned: “Even when the line-up stayed the identical this yr, going into this season it is my fourth with Mercedes, seventh in F1.
“Final yr was most likely my strongest ever and I really feel I am getting stronger year-on-year. So even when issues had stayed the identical, I felt an enormous quantity of assist from the staff.
“Equally the staff gave me that assist after I joined and now Kimi is a super-fast driver, super-motivated. Naturally loads to be taught however I’m positive it should be season collectively.”
Mercedes received eight consecutive constructors’ titles from 2014-21 however have fallen from the very entrance since new rules have been launched for 2022, profitable solely 5 grands prix in three years.
Russell mentioned: “The final couple of years we now have been so centered on fixing the issue, we weren’t looking forward to what future points it will trigger.
“You clear up one factor and it creates a brand new drawback, we now have been far more forward-thinking than we now have previously.
“Whenever you’re altering traits of the automobile, if you happen to make the entrance stronger it’s going to take away from the rear, and if you happen to go too far, that is simply as a lot of an issue as the wrong way.
“It is being thorough, saying: ‘These are the basic modifications we’ll make. We predict it should do X, is that going to be an issue at these races and if that’s the case how are we going to drive round it?'”
Wolff mentioned Antonelli “has all the mandatory expertise to realize nice issues on the pinnacle of the game, however it is a rookie season and there’ll inevitably be ups and downs. We’re trying ahead to that journey collectively although and serving to him develop over the course of the yr”.
