Shovlin: The car turned out exactly the way we wanted it to.

      On Friday in Suzuka, Mercedes chief racing engineer Andrew Shovlin spoke about the team's form at the beginning of the season.…

      Q: Andrew, how would you rate the start of the season?Andrew Shovlin: Everything went much more calmly than in recent years. Mostly because the car turned out exactly the way we intended it to be. She doesn't have the vices that hindered us in previous years, and that's thanks to her good work in the winter. Last year we sorted out the problems, and now they have been fixed.

      So far, this is only the third stage, but the car worked well on all tracks. Obviously, we are lagging behind McLaren, and we are trying to reduce the gap, but this is more like a regular refinement – now we don't have to solve problems with handling in parallel.

      Q: Last year's race in Japan was not easy for the team. Do you consider the weekend in Suzuka as a kind of landmark?Andrew Shovlin: No. From this point of view, the Bahrain stage will be more interesting, because there is overheating of the rear wheels, and this is one of our past problems. Suzuka has a completely different track. The weekend started well, let's see how it goes from here.

      Q: Andrew, can we talk about the drivers? Toto praised George Russell very much after the race in China. In what areas, in your opinion, has he improved this year?Andrew Shovlin: He's calm and confident. George did a great job in the first two races, which is encouraging.

      Question: What about Kimi Antonelli's debut?Andrew Shovlin: Kimi and I have done a lot of tests on previous years' machines (TPC). It was immediately clear that he would become a worthy rider, and we had high hopes for him.

      Remember how he performed in the rain–soaked race in Melbourne - Kimi looked much more confident than the other debutants. And although we did a lot of TPC tests with him, he didn't race with other cars behind the wheel of Formula 1.

      He was unlucky enough to damage the car in qualifying in Melbourne. It was unlucky that he was injured on the first lap of the race in China. But what we have seen gives us confidence that he will only get better.

      Q: Did you notice any changes in Russell's approach when he became the team leader after Lewis left?Andrew Shovlin: The approach will inevitably change when one rider is experienced like George and the other is a novice like Kimi. They work together, and George tries to use his experience.

      Russell is now the most experienced rider of the team. We always knew he was fast, and he added confidence and calmness to that, which is helping us a lot this year.

      In Melbourne, George informed us very accurately about the weather and his feelings in the car. We used this information to select a Kimi strategy. It's nice to see how they work together, and how George handles this role.

      Question: George said that in the past, the team went in circles when improving one area of the car had unforeseen consequences for another. Have you solved this problem?Andrew Shovlin: Yes, before, by focusing on solving one problem, we unwittingly created another. To ensure that the car...

      With these regulations, it is quite difficult to make a car that is equally well balanced on different tracks, at different cornering speeds – and controlling this during the development process is key. We controlled this dependence much more tightly, and the car that debuted in Bahrain turned out exactly as we expected.