The last Miami Grand Prix was a challenging race for most of the drivers and also for the teams. From Saturday, it began to be noticed that the track was more complicated than they had thought.
Sergio Pérez managed to obtain pole position after his teammate had not managed to complete any lap time, this due to the crash of Charles Leclerc in the last attempt of Q3, which led to a red flag. In second position was the two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso, while the other Spanish Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz, finished in third position.
One team that struggled too much throughout the qualifying session was Mercedes. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton failed to make the Q2 cut-off and finished in P13. On the other hand, George Russell finished in P6, not a bad position, but he was beaten by Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri and even Kevin Magnussen’s Haas.
On the other hand, Hamilton finished in P6 while Russell in P4 during Sunday’s main race. They managed to minimize the damage from their bad Saturday session, however Toto Wolff was not happy at all with the performance of his cars.
“That’s the story of the car that we have very good sessions, like on Friday, then we had a very difficult qualifying and then on Sunday, we have a solid base but that solid base is not where we want to be.
“And we need to understand why we are lacking that speed for a lap. So there’s nothing to be relieved of by having a more decent Sunday.”
Hamilton had a great performance during the race on Sunday, charging through the field in the second stint. He managed to overtake Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari for P6 in the closing laps.
The Mercedes’ team principal was quite happy with the performance of the seven-time world champion during the Miami Grand Prix.
“He’s had a mega performance, because when you start 13th with a car that’s really not easy [to drive], then had to plough through the field…
“At the end he had real pace, overtaking the Ferrari. Finishing sixth when you start 13th… It’s a very, very good job that he’s delivered today.”
Photo Credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
We know that Mercedes is going to receive a package of aerodynamic improvements for the upcoming Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which will take place at Imola. Mercedes has commented that these are expected to be extreme improvements, while Wolff commented that he had never seen improvements that managed to do what these improvements are supposed to do to the W14.
“Like I said, we need to manage our own expectations, because we’re bringing it up the package that’s gonna consist of new suspension parts, and bodywork and some other things. But I have never in my 13 years in Formula One unlock half a second of performance, so I very much doubt that this is going to happen.
“What I’m looking forward is that we take certain barriers off the table, where we believe we could introduce something that we don’t understand in the car.”
The next race will take place in two weeks at the legendary Imola circuit. As we already mentioned, the German manufacturer will introduce a new package of aerodynamic upgrades, which are expected to be at the same level as Aston Martin and Ferrari, to also be in contention for second place in the constructors’ championship. Red Bull has already taken off in said championship, however it seems that the fight for second place is red hot.
