Mercedes ends another weekend that was far from thrilling, similar to recent ones. Beyond finishing fourth and fifth, ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, which had to serve a double ten-second penalty, what weighs most is the gap to the lead, exceeding 40 seconds. Various factors negatively impacted the race for both Mercedes cars, especially for George Russell.
After reclaiming fifth place from Lewis Hamilton, who had managed to pass him at the start, Russell began to pull away from his teammate, who was slowed by troublesome understeer caused by certain setup choices. After FP3, Hamilton switched to the higher-downforce rear wing option, but he experienced a lack of rear support in qualifying.
For the race, this led him to reduce front downforce, but with changing track conditions, this caused persistent understeer throughout the first stint, allowing Russell to extend his lead to over five seconds. However, in the second half of the race, the dynamics shifted, with Hamilton showing stronger pace, eventually closing the gap on George Russell and overtaking him after several attempts.
A crucial factor in Russell’s race was an issue with the front wing. Right after his pit stop, Russell returned behind Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson, who were battling for fourth place as they had yet to pit. On the following lap, Russell managed to pass the McLaren driver but, in doing so, drove over a particularly uneven section of the main straight. When he went over a dip, the vibrations caused the two upper flaps on the left side of the front wing to collapse.
“When he overtook Piastri coming out of the pits, he hit the bump, and one of the main front flaps collapsed, resulting in a tremendous loss of downforce,” recounted Toto Wolff after the race.
The two flaps didn’t detach but remained attached to the front wing structure, albeit in a more reclined position, which compromised not only the total aerodynamic load but also the car’s balance, causing it to be unbalanced on both sides. According to Mercedes’ measurements, this likely resulted in a loss of 20 points of downforce, a significant figure, especially as it made it more challenging to manage the front tires, which, as seen with Hamilton, suffered throughout the first stint due to excessive understeer.
“I think in high-speed corners, the loss was 20 points. Then he drove very well. But, of course, the more the tires are affected, the more the lap time impact is exponential,” added the Mercedes Team Principal, emphasizing Russell’s strong performance despite the problem.
When asked why Hamilton was unable to close the gap on Russell sooner, Wolff explained that there are still uncertainties about the new package, which was available only on the seven-time champion’s car this weekend, as the kit intended for the other W15 was damaged in a crash in Austin.
“So how can I explain the difference in pace? First, I believe George drove very well all weekend. On the other hand, there could be something in the aerodynamic upgrade package causing something we don’t yet understand, as we had two severe incidents in the same corner in Austin… But then we also had an incident with the old package car [in practice in Mexico with Russell]. These cars are so close to the limit that it will be an interesting experiment in Brazil to see if there is a high-speed or low-speed instability factor,” added Toto Wolff at the end of the Mexico City Grand Prix, hinting that in Brazil, they may again split the two packages based on the drivers’ preferences. It’s possible that, should George Russell choose to mount the new package, expected to be repaired by Brackley, Lewis Hamilton may decide to revert to the old one.
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