Following the end of the 2024 Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix, Mercedes seems to have had a tale of two halves with their results. While the man who was on the top step on Formula One’s last outing in Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton found himself finishing the race in P3, recording his 200th F1 podium.
George Russell, on the other hand, finished the Hungarian Grand Prix in P8. It was apparent that the car had pace during the race, but Russell was paying the price of his and the team’s mistakes from Saturday’s qualifying session.
Russell went out in Q1 and started the race in P17. Considering his starting position, a P8 finish is objectively a good recovery drive.
However, he was beaten by Sergio Pérez after the Mexican started a place ahead of him on the grid. Although Russell got the jump on lap 1, the undercut and good pace by the Red Bull driver was enough to see him win out in the battle for P7.
“[Checo’s] pace was surprisingly good, to be honest, I think. Following his recent form, I don’t think we were expecting to be in a fight with him, but I think his pace was in line with Max’s pace today,” said Russell.
“So, P7, P8, damage was done yesterday. That’s how it should be in this sport, you make a mistake, you get punished.”
The Mercedes driver was considering whether a one-stop was possible during the race. When told about how the strategy worked for Yuki Tsunoda, Russell admitted the hard was not a good tyre for them.
“I mean that hard tyre was failing pretty rubbish, to be honest. I think that compromised us slightly, having the two hards.”
Russell also took the time to point out the recent change in momentum the Brackley-based team has found, as he complimented the team’s latest run of form.
Despite not having Silverstone-like pace in Hungary, Lewis Hamilton held off Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton to grab a fifth straight podium for the team. The last time they didn’t finish on the rostrum was Monaco.
“But I’d say as a team this was probably our least competitive race weekend, and obviously Lewis was still on the podium. There’s five podiums in a row for us now as a team, so we’ll take the positives from that.”
On the other hand, the 26-year-old does not shy away from mentioning certain problems that is still affecting their pace, namely their rear tyres overheating.
“I think we just need to understand, there seems to be a fluctuation in our performance based on temperature. We need to understand that.”
Russell was also asked about the competitiveness of Mercedes in the last few races, and where he would place the team I’m comparison with the rest of top runners.
“I think without a doubt we’re ahead of Ferrari,” he stated.
“I think we’re not a million miles away from Red Bull.
“But as I said, in these five races, we’ve been clearly the quickest in two, and we’ve been second or third fastest in the other three. So maybe it’s just the natural fluctuations through a season, but there definitely seems to be some correlation with temperature.”
Lastly, Russell was asked about the communication mix-up during Q1 that saw him down the grid for the Grand Prix. It’s a valuable lesson they need to learn from, according to the Brit.
“Yeah, well, I mean, we all took responsibility and understood what we could have done better. Ultimately, it all came down to communication.
“Between us all, we probably made three errors in the course of that one session.
“We just only need to avoid one of those errors and we’d have comfortably gone through, and it was all down to comms, so one to learn for the future.”
