George Russell is confident his Mercedes team will "be in a much stronger position" when the lights go out for the first race of the upcoming Formula 1 season.
The Silver Arrows had a 2022 season to forget, by their own standards. Having won the eight previous constructors' titles in a row, they found themselves off the pace of their Red Bull and Ferrari rivals in the first few races of last campaign.
They never really recovered, though improvements made as the season went on helped them to at least record one win, in Brazil. Russell was the man who secured that victory, beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton to the chequered flag – and finishing above the seven-time world champion in the standings.
The big question hanging over Mercedes right now is about the upcoming campaign. Will they manage to rectify their car issues with the creation of the W14, or should Silver Arrows fans brace for another year of their team not being as competitive as they would like?
In December, Wolff made it clear he is backing his talented colleagues to get the team back on track. "We haven't suddenly taken a stupid pill, winning the constructors' championship last December and then in March being nowhere is very easy. We got the concept [of the W13] wrong," he explained.
"In the organisation nobody is shy to say that we've done a bad job here. Very easy. There is no hiding, no seeking for explanation how we ended up there. I mean, all of us are saying we got this very wrong and others got it very right."
Russell has echoed that sentiment and has expressed his confidence he has in the team to give him a more competitive car this time around. "They haven't forgotten how to build a fast race car," he said of his colleagues.
"We just got it wrong. We got the philosophy wrong. We went down a route which turned out to be the wrong route. Sometimes it takes you a long time to dig yourself out of that hole. Now, I feel we've dug ourselves out of that hole and we're building on top of that.
"We are a step behind Red Bull and Ferrari and we've got a lot of catching up to do – but we're definitely going to be in a much stronger position from race one."
