Mercedes’ unique pre-season testing design drew attention earlier this year when they showed up in Bahrain.
Although it has not been as successful as the preceding championship-winning cars, it has enabled Russell and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to 13 podium finishes this season.
“I think nothing’s off the table. For sure we’ve got a pretty unique design with the sidepods,” Russell said.
“It’s not off the cards that we will continue with that design, but it is equally not off the cards that we will completely change the philosophy.
“But ultimately whether we have the wide sidepods or the narrow sidepods, that isn’t the performance differentiator. There is more to it.”
It became clear that the W13 favoured high-downforce tracks after Russell scored the first pole position of his Formula 1 career at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
George Russell remarked Monza was just a step in the right direction for Mercedes but that the team still had a lot of work to do before it could top the podium again in 2017.
“I think we understand exactly why at circuits like Zandvoort and Budapest why we were competitive, and we understand why at circuits like this [Monza] and Spa we were uncompetitive,” he continued.
“That doesn’t mean that we can solve the issues overnight. We’ve got to keep on developing this car and next year will be an evolution of this and I think now we do have a totally clear direction of how to develop the car.”
