Mercedes endured a tough weekend in Austin, with Russell securing 6th place while Hamilton criticized his car after an early exit.
George Russell saved Mercedes F1’s race at the United States Grand Prix with a 6th-place finish.
Although a fairly average result, it stood in stark contrast to Lewis Hamilton’s early retirement after going off track in Austin. Notably, Russell had to start from the pit lane!
“I’m pleased with how the race unfolded. We didn’t know what opportunities the race would present, but going from the pit lane to sixth and finishing ahead of Red Bull (Perez) allowed us to make the most of a tough situation. We had good pace throughout, especially on the hard tires. We were able to extend that first stint and have fresher tires to attack in the final laps.”
“We’ll work hard in the coming days to analyze the weekend as a whole. The car can still be tricky at times; Lewis doesn’t usually end races in the gravel, as we saw today. When we hit its sweet spot, it’s capable of good performances, but it’s hard to achieve consistently. I believe the car had the potential to fight for the podium this weekend, but we need to expand its operating window. We’ll look to bounce back next weekend in Mexico.”
Lewis Hamilton was quickly out of the race due to a driving error. He stated he wasn’t even in attack mode when he spun out.
“I got a great start. I felt good and was up to 12th after the first lap. Five places gained! It was the best start I’ve had in a long time into Turn 1. I wasn’t even attacking at that moment, I was literally trying to get the car going properly, obviously bringing the tires up to temperature.”
“The car started bouncing. The front left began to bounce, and the rear let go, just like George yesterday.”
“In FP1, I had the same issue—I spun in Turn 3, which is very rare. I’ve never spun in Turn 3 in all the years I’ve been here, and I’ve never spun out there before either.”
“As I mentioned, George had the same issue yesterday. He switched back to the old car and seemed fine. There might be something with our new upgrade. We’ll investigate as thoroughly as possible. After today, we’ll have the data.”
Even if Hamilton had managed to stay on track during this particular incident, he believes a spin was inevitable given the handling of his W15.
“If I hadn’t had that bouncing, I think if it didn’t happen on that lap, it would have happened a lap later. Something was wrong with the car, and it was the same throughout most of the weekend with this new package we had.”
“So yes, it’s obviously devastating, but that’s the way it is. We’ll have today’s data and find out whether we’ll use the old or new specification next week.”
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Russell Salvages Points as Hamilton Slips in Austin Russell Salvages Points as Hamilton Slips in Austin
