“Their pace here was weaker than in testing but they have got it easy at the moment and they can do what they like. They might not take every pole – because Ferrari are competitive over one lap – but when it comes to race pace they are in a very strong position.”
Russell’s prediction will set alarm bells ringing within the sport. Red Bull won 17 out of 22 races last year and the hope was that their rivals would give them more of a test this team.
Mercedes, in particular, are in a desperate situation, with team principal Toto Wolff making the stunning admission on the eve of the race that they would need to change the entire concept of their car as the team had lost the belief that it could ever make them contenders.
Russell said he agreed with Wolff, although he stressed it was not just the ‘narrow sidepods’ - the most visible point of difference on the Mercedes car - which were to blame for performance.
“I don’t think if we came next week a Red Bull-style sidepod would find us half a second,” he said. “The magic is done on the floor and parts of the car we cannot see.”
Asked whether Mercedes might now sacrifice this season, or part of it, in order to make long-term gains, Russell conceded that was eminently possible.
“If we have to sacrifice races or part of the season to give ourselves a chance to get a car that can fight, if that is the second half of the season or looking towards next year, that is what we will have to do because clearly we are a long way behind.
“We cannot beat around the bush. This is a big blow for all of us.”
Hamilton, who is in the final year of his contract, agreed with his teammate but declined to go into too much detail. “I don’t want to say too much,” he said. “We just need to keep working. We know we’re not where we need to be. And we know that this isn’t the right car. It’s a difficult one but I just have to try to stay positive, keep my head up and keep pushing the guys. Keep trying to be a positive force for them.”
Wolff said work on a new concept or car philosophy was already well under way, admitting he had “stopped dreaming about miracles a long time ago”.
“We have not been standing still,” the Austrian revealed. “We have already looked at different concepts. There is no constraint by the budget cap. We just need to decide which development concept to go with and put all our efforts into it.
“We are not going to develop two cars side by side. We are going to develop one car. We will decide in the next days and weeks which one it will be. It is pretty clear in which direction we need to go. We just need to make the data work. The most important thing is to establish a solid baseline so there are no surprises.
“I would rather win every single race and win championship after championship. But this is now a real challenge and an interesting one. I stopped dreaming about miracles a long time ago.”
