At the Miami GP, Mercedes struggled with medium tires, impacting their Sprint qualifying performance.
Mercedes F1 faced a setback during the Sprint qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were both eliminated in SQ2, clocking the 11th and 12th fastest times respectively. Russell lamented the team’s inability to optimize the medium tires.
“In free practice, the soft tires were really good on our car. We had a strong pace,” noted the British driver. “However, on the mediums, we just couldn’t find the sweet spot. We ended up on the wrong side of the window. It was tight; we shouldn’t have been so close to elimination.”
“We need to work hard by tomorrow and make some improvements for the main qualifying after the Sprint. I have no doubt about our progress in the Sprint. We must try to overcome our qualifying misfortunes. It’s always tough to battle with the cars ahead when we start from behind.”
“Everyone brought updates to this race. McLaren made a significant upgrade, Aston had something last week. We are somewhat in the same boat as everyone else. Today, it just didn’t work out for us.”
Hamilton had hoped to perform well in SQ1, but he couldn’t accelerate as much as his rivals on the medium tires: “The car felt really good in SQ1, and then it didn’t feel bad, it’s just that we were seven-tenths off – I think that’s just the pace of our car.”
“I think the Sprint race will be challenging. We’re starting in 12th position, so I don’t expect much from this race, to be honest. It’s not an easy circuit to overtake or follow [other cars], so we’re just trying to get into the points if we can.”
When asked if there were any experiments underway, Hamilton was clear: “No, we’re not experimenting this weekend, we just tried to make the car work. I feel like we have extracted everything possible from the car, and this is our pace. We just have to accept that we are seven-tenths off the pace of the car right now.”
Mercedes F1 Faces Harsh Reality in Miami Sprint. Mercedes F1 Faces Harsh Reality in Miami Sprint
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