Mer🧸cedes are hoping to bounce back from a disappointing 2022 season and return to title conte💞ntion this year with their modified W14. 

After a day-and-a-half of pre-season testing, Russell is convinced Red Bull remain the team to beat and effectively ruledཧ Mercedes out of a victory fight at the first race in Bahrain. 

"We definitely believe eventually we will have a car ca𓆏pable of getting in that fight,” Russell said. 

"Whether we're going to have that next weekend i🔴n Bahrain, I think may be a bit of a stretch.

"They [Red Bull] look very strong, very stable. The car is looking really strong and obviously Max is🍌 performing really well.

"So I think realistically, it willꦚ be a stretch for ne🅺xt week. 

“But there's no reason why eventually we can't get there at some point this year, and we've always seen the strength of Mercedes a🎀nd their development rates. So yeah, definitely, the belief is there.” 

Unlike their W13, Mercedes say their 2023 car has “no bouncing” i🔯ssues but have urged caution about their chances heading into the new campai♏gn.

“Comparing to this t🦹ime 12 months ago, things are running a lot smoother,” Russell explained. 

“When we were here last year there were a lot of alarm bells ring𒊎ing with the porpoising. We were unsure how to solve it were a bit lost and the car characteristics were not good. 

“For sure we’ve got things to improve with the car, but I would say, generally speaking, we are roughly where we would have expected to be at thꦆis time of year.” 

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff said the team 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:“are still hiding a little bit” when it comes to outright performance but revealed both Russell and teammate 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton 𓆏have been struggling with car balance so far. 

"The entry phase [to the corner] has been improved," Russell said. "It's no secret when you're watching the onboards an༒d videos that we are struggling a little bit with the balance, struggling a lot in the mid-corner.

"But I think it's a balance that is probably easier to solve than we had last year. So even t💧hough it's still a limitation, I think it's a good proble🧜m to have."