W15, so many quirks at the United States Grand Prix in Austin
Mercedes’ updates aren’t working, or rather, they are but not quite. This summarizes the weekend for George Russell and Lewis Hamilton: the two went from battling for pole position and, at one point, even for victory in the Sprint Race—especially when the young Englishman seemed capable of attacking Norris for second place and catching up with Max Verstappen—to the disastrous outcome of qualifying. This has been a familiar script throughout the season, leading to the conclusion that the W15 remains a rather temperamental car, overly sensitive to the slightest changes in weather and track conditions. The result is that Lewis was eliminated in Q1 and will likely start from the pit lane to change the setup under parc fermé regulations, while Russell qualified sixth but faces a parts shortage after the Q3 incident.
Mercedes without spare parts
The crash in turn 19 during the last flying lap of qualifying in Austin presents a real puzzle for Russell’s team, which is short on spare parts and will likely have to revert to the old, un-updated aerodynamic package. This is why Hamilton, who is also expected to start from the back and the pit lane, offered his aerodynamic components to his teammate to help safeguard the team’s chances of scoring valuable points. However, George Russell declined the offer: “For now, the biggest concern is about spare parts. We’ll have to go back to the old updates, and Lewis offered to give me his, but we won’t swap any parts. So, I don’t know what will happen, but that’s the biggest concern, and we don’t have the answers we want.”
Why George Russell won’t start from the pit lane
Even if George Russell reverts to the previous aerodynamic package, he will not be forced to start from the pit lane. This is due to Article 40.4 of the sporting regulations, which, during weekends with a Sprint format—when incidents are more likely and teams may run short on spare parts—allows teams to use aerodynamic components of technical specifications already used without violating parc fermé regulations, as long as it is demonstrated that there are no other spare parts of the same type.
George Russell should thus retain the sixth grid position but could find himself in the uncomfortable position of racing with a setup and aerodynamic components that were never tested during the weekend. “Whether with the old or new package, sometimes we’re there fighting for pole and wins, other times we’re five or six tenths off,” concluded the 26-year-old Englishman.
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