Mercedes F1 driver opens up on crunch meeting after disappointing Bahrain Grand Prix

George Russell has lifted the lid on the crunch meeting Mercedes held after the team suffered a disappointing start to the 2023 Formula One season.

Mercedes are widely regarded as one of the top F1 teams around - with Lewis Hamilton in their ranks, that's no surprise.

However, Hamilton and Mercedes teammate George Russell endured a tough start to the new season, finishing fifth and seventh respectively in the Bahrain Grand Prix two weeks ago.

The pair are two of the best drivers in F1, so it appears that engineering and design issues with the new W14 car are to blame.

On Tuesday the team's senior management, drivers and engineering staff came together for a special meeting to discuss what has been going wrong.

According to Russell, the team discussed what their targets are going forward ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend.

"We all came together and had some very good, honest, open conversations," explained Russell.

"A lot of the questions were answered as to how we got ourselves in this position in the first place.

"Plus, what are we going to do in short term, and medium term, to get out of it? What path do we want to be on?

"Those changes are already in place, of getting on the track that we believe is going to bring us back to victory."

While Russell didn't delve into the nitty-gritty of the issues, he did suggest that Mercedes are looking at a concept change.

"We know a change of concept doesn't come without risks," the 25-year-old admitted.

"But I think we all feel like we've got enough knowledge and information now to say that we weren't on the right tracks, and the targets that we set over the winter weren't the right ones.

"We need to change lanes as soon as possible.

Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes teammate George Russell. Image: Alamy

"Those decisions have already been made. And we've already started working towards them, as of probably Tuesday last week.

"How quickly that can be brought to the car, how quickly that's going to translate into performance is another question."

Russell explained that in trying to improve their car from last season, Mercedes might have created more problems for themselves.

"When you look at the W13, we were clearly too aggressive with the car design and the bouncing,” he said. "That was our big limitation.

"Now, fast forward 12 months, we wanted to be in a position where we're not experiencing any of this, and we've probably equally overshot in the opposite direction: compromised too much performance, too much downforce for the lack of bouncing."