Russell adamant better results are possible without Mercedes experiments

George Russell is adamant that Mercedes could've achieved a second-row finish in qualifying if they hadn't drastically experimented with their cars. Toto Wolff's team had a mixed set of results from the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, with Lewis Hamilton finishing second in the sprint but later qualifying in 18th for the Grand Prix. Hamilton admitted he made a mistake but blamed the overall siutuation on the set-up experiments. 

By their own high standards, Mercedes have endured undesired results in recent years. The team did finish second in the Constructors Championship in 2023, but failed to win a race. After the first five races in 2024, they have seemingly dropped behind Ferrari and customers McLaren. Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso seems to be close and is even ahead of Hamilton in the World Chamoionship.

Despite this, Russell insists Mercedes can achieve better results if they avoided playing around with the set-up. The 26-year-old explains they are simply not happy with the results and so turn to experimenting to improve in the long term.

Why Mercedes drastically experiment

"If we had optimised everything this weekend, maybe we have finished in P3, P4, or P5 in qualifying. But we wouldn't be content with that. We want to fight for victories and championships, hopefully minimum next year. Sometimes, we need to sacrifice in the short term to make gains down the line," Russell explained.

"We are still trying to find the development path we need to be on to make some big steps. And that's just where we are at the moment. If you can get on the right side of that qualifying group and gaggle of cars, we can go on to score a podium. The potential was there in Bahrain. Hamilton did it [in the sprint]. If that was a main Grand Prix race he still probably would’ve finished P3. It's not easy for anybody. Ferrari aren't content. Aston aren't happy. Everybody wants to be fighting for victories when right now, no team is doing a good enough job about from Red Bull," Russell added.

Mercedes will introduce upgrades at the Miami Grand Prix next weekend. The German team will have just 60 minutes of practice to test these upgrades and select a set-up for the sprint race. Hamilton and Russell will again be able to make changes between the 100km dash and qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix.