Mercedes have endured a difficult start to the Formula 1 season, but George Russell insists that the problems have not caused any internal 'finger-pointing' at the team. With results not meeting Mercedes' high expectations at the start of the 2023 season, the Brackley-based team have publicly stated their intention to implement extensive design changes to the W14. Mercedes have expressed their open-mindedness about the design direction of the car, but minimal comments have been made about any changes of team structure.
When asked by RacingNews365.com if Mercedes had taken the correct approach with their no-blame culture, Russell insisted that the decisions about their W14 car were backed by everybody at the team, including himself and Hamilton. "I think many people accepted that these decisions weren't the right ones, but nobody is pointing fingers and blaming them for making decisions that were made with the best intentions and with the info we had," commented Russell. "I think when it comes to car concepts, when it comes to decisions of where, let's say, a team of two thousand people are going to be heading, it's never one person directing that. "You've got your probably senior six technical people who work together with all the knowledge we have with everybody who's beneath them, the knowledge that's coming from the drivers, the work we've done on the simulator, and those decisions are sort of passed by and agreed upon by everybody. "We were aware of the concept, Lewis and I, and we did believe that this was the right direction. But we as a team have clearly missed something that happened over the winter, and we're working as hard as we can to rectify that now."
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