The Mexican GP was certainly negative for Mercedes. The Brackley team cannot hide behind Hamilton’s and Russell’s fourth and fifth-place finishes, which, outside the context of the weekend at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, might seem like decent results behind Ferrari and McLaren.
The reality, however, is different: Oscar Piastri and Perez took themselves out of contention during qualifying, giving the two British drivers an easy third row, while Verstappen, during the race, was busy bumping Norris right and left, enough to earn a penalty and thus no longer be a threat to the Silver Arrows.
Since the summer, the W15 has lost the shine it had in the last races before the August break, when Lewis Hamilton and George Russell collected three wins in four races. It looked as if the Anglo-German car could even challenge the top teams almost anywhere, but things haven’t gone as hoped in Brackley, and the situation seems to have worsened.
In Austin, the car was updated but proved to be twitchy and unpredictable, leading to errors and crashes for both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. In Mexico, George crashed again during free practice, forcing the mechanics to replace the chassis and use old components to get him through the weekend.
Mercedes, Hamilton does what he can and beats Russell
Due to the budget cap, Mercedes now risks running out of spare parts until the end of the 2024 Formula 1 season, given the unexpected crashes from Russell and Antonelli in Monza. The two cars may be patched up from now until Abu Dhabi, and the on-track results are clearly affected by an issue that, to some extent, was unforeseen.
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth yesterday after an internal battle with George Russell, winning only in the final laps: “In the end, we managed to make progress and bring home some good points for the team. In the first stint, we weren’t very competitive; I didn’t have enough front wing load and suffered from a lot of understeer. We managed to improve the balance with the second pit stop, and our pace got better.” – he pointed out.
“Even if we’d had that pace from the first stint, we still wouldn’t have had what we needed to challenge those ahead for the podium. It wasn’t an easy weekend for the team, but we gathered a lot of information on both setups. Now we can analyze that data and determine the best path forward for the next weekend in Brazil and the rest of the season. Hopefully, we can improve the car a bit for Interlagos and challenge Ferrari and McLaren.”
After Friday’s crash, George Russell had to regain confidence with the car, and more than fifth place was probably out of reach:
“My first stint was very good, but I hit a bump while overtaking Oscar Piastri’s McLaren at the start of the second stint and damaged the front wing. This definitely cost me a few tenths per lap, which was unfortunate. We had to do over 30 laps with that damage, but even without it, we wouldn’t have had the pace to fight for the podium. So overall, fourth and fifth place were probably what we deserved as a team today and perhaps even a bit better than we expected before the race.”
“We’ll keep working hard to improve because we want to fight at the front. We’re making progress with the car, as seen from the growing gap with the teams behind us in the standings. We’ve also closed the gap to Red Bull compared to the start of the season, but it’s clear that Ferrari and McLaren have made even bigger strides forward. We’ll use these last four races of the season to keep learning, try different things, and prepare as best we can for next year.”
2025 will likely be a transition year for Mercedes, considering the new regulations in 2026 and the arrival of Kimi Antonelli, an interesting prospect. However, it’s unlikely that Toto Wolff will want to give him a car capable of winning right away and put pressure on him. Instead, it will likely be an adaptation season for the young driver from Bologna, allowing him to ease into a new era with the regulations set to take effect in just over a year – or so Brackley hopes.
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