George Russell delivers 'pretty impressive' verdict as new Mercedes era begins

George Russell has stated he found the opening day of on-track action in Barcelona “pretty impressive” as a new era of F1 got underway.

Barcelona is hosting the first pre-season test of the year, with teams allowed to choose three days this week to run their cars.

Mercedes was one of seven teams to take to the track on Monday, with Kimi Antonelli tackling morning duties before handing over to Russell in the afternoon.

Russell clocked 95 laps for the Brackley-based squad, with the team totalling over 700km during the first day.

With this year's power units undergoing significant change this year, Russell has been left impressed by their early performance.

“It’s amazing just to be back out driving again,” Russell said. 

“I think at the end of the year everyone’s looking forward to a break, but then after a week or two you’re raring to go again.

“There was obviously a lot of anticipation for these new power units, and so far, just generally on the whole, the amount of power they give is pretty impressive. 

“I think for all the cars I was watching today, with all the different power units, it’s probably the quickest I’ve ever seen an F1 car pass here in Barcelona, so that was pretty exciting to see.

“And the cars, you feel it being smaller, you can feel that weight reduction compared to previous years, so I think from that aspect as well it’s gone in a good direction.”

George Russell impressed by F1 rivals

Also joining Mercedes on the track were debutants Cadillac and Audi, as well as Red Bull's brand new in-house built engine.

Ahead of the new era, it was speculated that the sport could see 2014-esque breakdowns, which saw very limited running when the turbo-hybrid units were first introduced.

But Russell admitted to being wowed by the efficiency of other teams at such an early stage of the season.

“For sure, we’re very pleased with the day, but I was pretty impressed with a number of other teams, to be honest,” he said.

“You see the Red Bull-powered teams’ brand new power unit, they’re like a brand-new team from a power unit side, and they had a really smooth day with two cars.

“Audi had some good laps in there as well, and I think Haas did the most laps of everyone with a Ferrari engine. 

“It’s not quite 2014 vibes of half the grid is breaking down and having loads of issues – I think Formula 1’s evolved so much since then and the level’s just so high.

“From every single aspect, it was pretty impressive to see all the teams on the whole having a lot of laps under their belt on day one.”