Both Mercedes cars scored points at the Miami International Autodrome this past Sunday. Lewis Hamilton had his best Sunday of 2024 on the track but the same could not be said for his teammate George Russell who crossed the line P8 having started one place higher up the grid. Russell said post-race “we need to make changes quick.”
Russell started Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix on the Medium tyre but was unable to benefit off the line after getting boxed in at the start and falling to P10 by the end of the opening lap.
As the race continued and pitstops followed, Russell’s pace on the hard compound fell off considerably and his post-race comments showed he had no answers as yet as to why. He was comfortably beaten by Yuki Tsunoda as the Japanese driver showed excellent speed on his way to P7.
“Something didn’t feel quite right with the car, I just had no grip no pace,” Russell admitted. When asked as to the reason why, he replied “I don’t really know to be honest it’s such swings and roundabouts for us at the moment. On a good day we’re P5 and a bad day P8 and today was a bad day — and we finished P8.”
Russell was vocal that the team will now go away and assess why he had so many struggles on the Hard compound due to the fact that“our lack of speed was quite unexpected, whilst Lewis had a strong race so there was definite speed in the car.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director at Mercedes, will be one of the men tasked with finding answers and he said post-race: It was a frustrating afternoon for George meanwhile. He was sliding around and struggling to get the tyres to bite. We’ll look into that over the next few days.”
Meanwhile, Russell was asked as to whether Lando Norris claiming his first victory for McLaren gave him hope.
“McLaren qualified P17 and P18, 12 months ago in Miami.” said Russell. “And today they won. So, it shows what’s possible when you get things right but right now we don’t have things right and we need to make changes quick.”
An obvious change would come in the form of upgrades and on that point Russell hinted at what the team has in store but it is hardly a silver bullet for the Silver Arrows.
“We do have a few things coming in the short term but nothing that’s going to transform us into race winners right now.
“I think we have to accept that we are the fourth fastest team at the moment. The lap times don’t lie. The championship doesn’t lie. This is where we are and as I said I think we’re fighting for the P5 to P8 region week in week out.”
Mercedes have lost even more ground on their rivals in front. There is already a 60-point gap between themselves and Mercedes engine customer team McLaren who currently occupy P3 of the standings. What must surely concern Mercedes even more, is the fact that they are only 22 points in front of Aston Martin.
Russell says that his team are the fourth fastest team at the moment but for now they are a team looking over their shoulder as much as looking at those in front.
