George Russell immediately felt the additional downforce generated by Mercedes' major upgrade at Sepang, but the potential of the package was difficult to fully assess as tyre overheating and degradation dominated Friday's running.
Mercedes brought its first substantial upgrade since the Canadian Grand Prix at the end of May to the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. The W17 featured major revisions to the floor, rear suspension and bodywork.
However, the package did not produce an immediate breakthrough in the FP2 standings. Russell finished seventh, with championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli eighth, while Charles Leclerc led the session for Ferrari.
Russell nevertheless confirmed that he could feel the increased downforce from the revised Mercedes, particularly through several corners. The extreme tyre behaviour in the hot conditions, however, made it harder to judge the overall impact of the upgrade.
“I'm feeling the downforce in some of the corners, but with this amount of tyre overheating and tyre degradation that kind of trumps everything,” Russell said.
According to Russell, the main issue was related more to the car's setup than the upgrade itself. Mercedes therefore has work to complete overnight before the next stage of the weekend.
“So we just need to get on top of that overnight. That's more of a setup rather than the upgrade itself, and we go from there,” the Briton added.
Russell also highlighted the strength of the opposition as Mercedes looks to extract more performance from its upgraded package. Max Verstappen topped FP1, while Russell believes McLaren's race pace is particularly strong.
“Currently, I think Verstappen looks very fast and then the race pace of McLaren, it looks very quick, but, you know, never say never,” Russell said.
Friday's results therefore do not provide a definitive picture of Mercedes' upgraded W17. Russell and Antonelli finished only seventh and eighth in FP2, but the team has identified additional downforce while also facing a clear tyre-temperature and degradation challenge that it must address through setup work.
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