George Russell has revealed that Mercedes’ 2025 Formula 1 car will comprise several parts that the team has long had in the “pipeline” but could not bolt onto the W15.
Mercedes harbours the ambition to return to title contention in the upcoming campaign having struggled in the three seasons since the reversion to ground effect cars in 2022.
Despite a sluggish beginning, the German marque showed sporadic promise in 2024 once a new front wing unlocked the W15’s potential to deliver three wins in five races.
But while the team’s competitiveness would dip again as the season progressed, Russell expressed that Mercedes had pinpointed the areas it must address over the winter.
According to the Briton, that involves various elements that Mercedes had parked in the background due to not being able to introduce them at any stage last season.
“There have been a lot of… I wouldn’t say changes directly from last year to this year, these are things that have been in the pipeline for a long time, items that we couldn’t quite put on the car in 2024 but we’ve been working on them for a long time,” Russell told Sky Sports.
Russell intrigued by 2025 development race
The new campaign will mark the last one until a wholesale regulation change arrives, which will include a return to smaller, lighter and nimbler cars with active aerodynamics.
Meanwhile, the engine formula will also undergo a revamp as the MGU-H will be canned, with a near 50/50 split on output between electrical and combustion power.
But with work on the all-new cars prohibited until last month, the teams will have a conundrum about how to manage their resources between this season and next.
Russell has expressed that he is eager to see whether such a dilemma will have a bearing on how the inevitable development race materialises throughout the campaign.
“Throughout this year, with the thought of 2026, whether people keep developing or not is going to be quite intriguing,” he added.
Mercedes set to alter development approach?
Mercedes has hinted that it will adopt a more aggressive approach when it comes to bringing upgrades this season, having been behind its rivals in that regard across 2024.
“The whole thing of development in Formula 1 is fixing problems, and can you fix them quicker than your competitors,” Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin said.
“That’s how you get to the front. If you look at when we brought our updates compared to our main competitors, we were often bringing our big package a couple of races later.”
“But if we brought it earlier, it would be a smaller package.”
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