Anthony Davidson insists that 26-year-old’s F1 car is ‘definitely not as good’ as 2024 Red Bull

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Sky Sports pundit Anthony Davidson admitted that George Russell’s Mercedes looked nowhere near as good as Red Bull’s 2024 car during Wednesday morning’s testing session in Bahrain.

Formula 1 cars are back in action and have three days of testing to prepare for the opening Grand Prix in Bahrain next Saturday.

Commentating on the first day of action for Sky Sports, Davidson was examining the new F1 W15.

Davidson admits Russell is way off Red Bull in testing

Everyone in the paddock and watching on in the stands and at home will hope that somebody can challenge Red Bull this season.

Between Max Verstappen’s 19 victories and Sergio Perez’s pair of wins early on in 2023, only Carlos Sainz could stop the team from completing a perfect season after taking the chequered flag in Singapore.

While the outright pace of the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari wasn’t too far off Red Bull in qualifying, they didn’t have the same overall pace on Sundays.

Red Bull have gone in a different direction with their development for 2024 and that may worry their rivals.

Mercedes have set tongues wagging with their new front wing, which Ted Kravitz believes could be a ‘bit of magic’ this year and has caught the attention of Adrian Newey.

However, after the first session, Davidson is already unsure that George Russell is going to have a car that can immediately challenge Red Bull.

A lot change over the next couple of days and heading into the first Grand Prix of 2024.

But knowing how strong Red Bull have been over the past few years, it’s hard to see them giving up too much ground to their rivals.

Mercedes have work to do before the 2024 season opener

Watching Russell heading into the first corner in Sakhir, Davidson said: “Yeah, this is George Russell coming down the main straight, a bit of bouncing there, you can just hear it from the car there.

“There’s still a little bit of touching, what will happen down at turn one, that’s the critical part.

“And yeah he seems to be able to get the car turned pretty well.

“Ride, you’d have to say is not as good as the Red Bull, oh yeah, definitely not as good as the Red Bull. Very low there and crashing into the biggest bump on the track.

“That’s one of the biggest I’ve seen from any car, so still a bit of work to be done with those nuts and bolts.”

Russell will hope that Mercedes can figure out how to close the gap to Red Bull because as Davidson said earlier in the session, they looked very smooth coming out of turn one.

It’s still very early days and new parts will arrive throughout testing and before next weekend’s Grand Prix.

The last thing the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari can afford to do is let Red Bull open up an early lead in the championship.

Planning upgrades throughout the season is fine, but they need to be at a similar base level of pace to the Red Bull for them to be worthwhile.