After the accidents in Austin and Mexico, George Russell has to switch back to an older version of his Mercedes, but is still ahead of Lewis Hamilton
George Russell does not believe that he will put the Mercedes team under pressure in view of the 2024 budget limit, although his crash in Friday’s practice in Mexico caused expensive damage again: “We always have a bit of a buffer there,” the 26-year-old Briton gives the all-clear as far as finances are concerned.
When it comes to the budget, you always have to ask yourself whether you are still investing in the current season or in the next one, “and now we may have to cut back on this season. To be honest, I welcome that, because we’re no longer in the running for the championship anyway. I’d rather stay on the old underbody if that improves our chances for next year.”
Russell crashed both last week in Austin and on Friday in Mexico, damaging two of the latest generation of underbodies. “I think we can repair the one from Austin. At least that’s the plan,” he reports. “The damage wasn’t as bad as we thought. And then we should be able to use it again in Brazil.”
In Mexico, however, Russell had to change the chassis during the night from Friday to Saturday. Due to the accident damage, he is now forced to drive with a subframe “that we haven’t driven since Miami, so for 14 races. Being a tenth of a second away from third place was okay. The lap was really good.”
“One of my best laps of the season”
Russell qualified 5th on Saturday, 0.410 seconds behind pole setter Carlos Sainz and 0.295 seconds ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton. He is surprised at the large gap: “It was pretty close between Lewis and me the whole time. I don’t know what happened on his last run.”
And he adds: “My lap was really good, one of my best of the whole season. Nevertheless, half a second is missing in the end to the pole position. But it fluctuates so much. Take yesterday: I was fastest in FT1, and after my two laps in FT2 I was in 10th place. That’s not just because of the upgrades.”
As team principal Toto Wolff explained on Friday, the Mercedes is currently only working optimally under specific conditions. When the car is in the right operating window, it’s a rocket. But when it’s outside of it, it’s a bitch. This was Russell’s undoing in the second free practice session, when he hit the curbs and unexpectedly lost control.
Russell: Mercedes have problems with curbs
“The Red Bulls just drive over the kerb as if it were nothing,” analyzes Russell. ”I’ve been driving over it every single lap for the last two years. Even in FP1, four laps with the kerb, no problem. But then suddenly – you can see it in the replay – the car hops like a kangaroo.”
Russell’s pit crew “did not have an easy time of it” after the recent crashes, Wolff admits, because “after George’s accident on Friday, they worked almost all night to get the car running again. Consistently performing at this level, especially during an intense triple header, is a testament to team spirit and professionalism.”
Andrew Shovlin, the head of the operations team, says: “It was a big crash and there was significant damage, including to the chassis. This forced us to change the chassis. But we were able to complete the repair in time and get both cars out on track in FP3. This is a great achievement by the pit crew, who have effectively and efficiently overcome the challenges we have faced here and in Austin.”
Russell apologizes for giving his mechanics so much extra work: “Over the past two weeks, I’ve put the team under a lot of pressure. Running out of spares is quite unnecessary, but we know why it’s happened. It’s not because I’m overdriving the car. It’s just quite snappy.”
Overachieved in qualifying with P5/6
As for the sheer performance of the Mercedes in Mexico, Russell is still puzzling over “why the car was so good in first practice”. And he adds: “We are currently the fourth-fastest team. So we should be seventh and eighth in qualifying, but we are fifth and sixth. So, all in all, a good day.”
Wolff nods in agreement: ”Fifth and sixth place is a good result today. We didn’t have the pace of the top three, so the third row was probably the best we could have achieved. But to get there, we had to get everything right.”
“Qualifying wasn’t easy, with both Red Bull and McLaren losing a car in Q1. In the end, we were less than two-tenths of a second away from the front row with George driving the old specification. It’s a bit frustrating, but it also gives us encouragement for the race that we might be able to pick up the pieces when the drivers in front of us aren’t at their best,” said the Austrian.
Shovlin adds: “Ferrari looked fast all weekend and McLaren put in some competitive times in FP3. So it’s frustrating that we were only a few tenths of a second away from the front row. But we know that fifth and sixth place are probably a fair result given our pace so far this weekend.”
