Mercedes are debuting what they hope will be subꦉstantial upgrades in Monte Carlo, including sidepods which are simila🤡r to Red Bull’s philosophy.

Russell and🎐 Lewis Hamilton hope that Monaco will be the start of a new chapter where the new-look ꦐW14 can again fight Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

“Things are woꦓrking as expected, no real concerns,” Russell said about Mercedes’ upgrades.

“We brought a lot to the car - aero p꧋ackage, new suspension and all are working as expected.

“I see no reason why in Barcelona it won’t perform as we expected, an🔯d we will hopefully make a smaღll jump.

“But, eqꦗually, I think Aston Martin has brought some upgrades as well and naturally the whole field moves forward.”

“Sometimes you have got to stick with what you believe. And, sometimes, ꩲthe best course of action is building around 𒅌your foundations.

 “But we wanted to rule some things out.

“The sidepods haven’t necessarily b⭕rought any additional performance by going to a more Red Bull concept.

“T😼he magic is more un🅠derneath the floor. But we still had to rule it out. We’ve done that now, now we move on.”

The revised design to the floor was displayed when Hamilton crashed in practice, and a crane liftedও his car high into the air.

Toto🎀 Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, joked❀ that it was like a circus act.

Wolff is hoping to gain further understanding of Mer🍎cedes’ latest upgrades in Monaco, and next week in Spain, while they continue to twea♍k their revised ideas.

The ‘zeropod’ strategy which Mercedes have now ditched in ♛favour of the approach that Red Bull use is the key difference.