George Russell unsure on how effective Mercedes upgrades will be in Emilia Romagna this weekend

George Russell has admitted that this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola will be a big test for Mercedes’ first round of upgrades.

Russell stressed that the update is expected to make the W14 a much more stable platform to develop and extract performance from down the line.

“We need to see how the upgrades perform when we get there,” Russell said.

“Fingers crossed they’re brilliant, but we’ll only know that on Friday morning.”

Russell recorded his best finish of the season at last weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.

He finished two places ahead of his teammate, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who recorded Mercedes’ only podium this season in Australia.

What do Mercedes want to improve this weekend?

The update tackles the front suspension and aims to make the car less “poisonous to drive” for both drivers as Toto Wolff put it.

Russell believes the W14’s poor handling is making it very difficult to start each race in the best possible position.

If last season’s result in Emilia Romagna are anything to go by, Mercedes need these upgrades to do a lot of work.

There was a sprint race at Imola last year, although both Russell and Hamilton finished outside the top ten.

Russell managed to climb to 4^th after starting seven places further back for the main race, but Hamilton stayed outside the points.

Despite winning more than 100 races in his career, Hamilton has never had much luck at Imola.

He’s won the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix just once back in 2020, beating teammate Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo that day.

He’ll be hoping that this weekend’s upgrade make all the difference for Mercedes at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.