Mercedes have revealed a problem with George Russell’s front wing compromised his performance in the Mexican Grand Prix.
The team believe he sustained damage to his car on a bump early in his second stint.“George was hindered when the front wing flap collapsed after he hit a bump during an overtake at the start of the second stint,” Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained. “Despite that, he still maintained good enough pace to bring it home in fifth.”
Having fallen behind Lewis Hamilton at the start, Russell passed him early in the race. But he fell back into his team mate’s clutches when he lost pace in the second stint.
“We let the drivers race each other throughout,” said Shovlin, “that meant that Lewis’ tyres were past their best once he made it into clear air.”
Russell said he had to cope with the loss of front-end grip for more than half the race.
“The first stint I was really pretty happy with,” he told the official F1 channel. “The pace was pretty strong and once I managed to get back past Lewis, I was holding pace with Lando [Norris] and Max [Verstappen].
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“Then as soon as I came out of the pits, I hit some sort of bump down the main straight and the left-hand side of the front wing just collapsed. That’s when I was overtaking Oscar [Piastri], I think it was.
“So that I really compromised [me], 40 laps I had to do like that. But nevertheless P4 and P5, as a team probably we would have taken that after Friday.”
Hamilton said he put himself at a disadvantage by running too little front wing angle. “It wasn’t looking so racy in the first stint, which is a bit frustrating,” he said.
“I had taken too much front wing out of the car and had so much understeer. Once you start, that’s it, you’re stuck with it. If I hadn’t had that, then I think we would had a much better race.
“But anyway, I still would have finished fourth. So anyway I’m happy with the second stint, had some good battles coming back.”
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2024 Mexican Grand Prix
- McLaren have no regrets over pitting Norris shortly before red flag came out
- Leclerc fined, avoids same penalty as Verstappen after apologising for swearing
- Leclerc not in the clear over swearing as Verstappen claims he went unpunished
- Majority of drivers wanted racing rules to change “straight away” – Russell
- Verstappen was “over the limit” with Norris but others would do same – Leclerc
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
28th October 2024, 1:22
Lost a lot of respect for the Mercedes team today as they didn’t let HAM past RUS when RUS had a broken car. I know he’s leaving but he was driving for Mercedes today. Meanwhile, Red Bull believes the RB team should let the Red Bull team cars past in any situation.
Applebook
28th October 2024, 1:36
If the roles were reversed, they would have told Lewis to move over. Lewis volunteered to do just that in Japan when he broke his front wing. Great defense fork Russell though. His launches out of the final corner was spectacular.
AlanD
28th October 2024, 2:18
Yes, it was a good battle between equally matched cars, and great skill shown by both drivers. It was only 24 hours ago that some people were posting that Hamilton is past it and a certain armchair expert said Hamilton is being annihilated by Russell this season.
rprp
28th October 2024, 7:37
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
28th October 2024, 14:56
I think the point is, that it’s laughable the way some delight in Lewis’s indifferent season – when it’s still pretty good compared to others in the current and past fields.
I also think he’d be sensational in that Ferrari. As we’ll see next season.
No matter what anyone says, it is never the same season when you announce you are leaving a team – particularly when you’ve been a superstar for them, i.e. look at Klopp at Liverpool.
Ben
28th October 2024, 8:25
It was a good battle but they weren’t in equal cars. Russell was running parts from Miami and Silverstone while Hamilton had every upgrade available. Russell also had a collapsed front wing.
In phase 1 of the race Russell caught, passed and drove away from Hamilton by around 7 seconds. That dropped to around 4 seconds when Hamilton got the undercut and after the stop Russell had damage.
This wasn’t the fantastic result for Hamilton you seem to think it is.
In an equal car and no damage Russell would have been 20 seconds down the road.
O'Ray
28th October 2024, 8:48
The upgrade that wasnt working, no wonder Russell rejected it in Austin when Lewis offered it to him
Ben
28th October 2024, 9:52
That’s hard to say O’Ray as without a direct comparison we’ll never know.
I will agree that the upgrades don’t look fantastic given both drivers have been spinning around and the Miami/Silverstone car is just as competitive!
I see this on Mercedes more than the drivers, but I don’t think it’s a result that Hamilton will be celebrating, nor does it reverse the fact Russell outclassed him in qualifying and the race (until he got pretty bad front wing damage)
Oleg
28th October 2024, 8:53
You could think anymore and 120 seconds…..
But Russell’s car had another specification after his another crash in qualy.
Hamilton no pace in first stint because other settings. But team change settings on his front wing in pit and his pace near to leaders on second stint
André
28th October 2024, 14:55
Let’s face it, the upgrades aren’t working.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
28th October 2024, 15:01
The latest upgrades have put the car back to been arguably worse than pre-Silverstone.
Also, ever thought that Lewis’s strategy was always to do a longer stint on the hards and look after them better. After all, he’s arguably the best at looking after his tyres – which is ironic when all the same Hamilton knockers in 2009 were telling us all he’d be rubbish when refuelling stopped.
DaveW (@dmw)
28th October 2024, 3:17
The lede here though is that Mercedes’ upgrade worked as well as the last IT update my office pushed through my computer. Except Hamilton didn’t get a blue screen on his steering wheel. He was only quicker after Russell mysteriously dinged his front wing.
Binarycode
28th October 2024, 3:59
Hamilton upgraded car is worse then older spec. Which Russell was using.
Again in Qualifying, hams car has issues when it feels good in fp
Glad ham is going to Ferrari
He’s earnt it.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
28th October 2024, 10:38
HAM has traditionally been unable to pass his teammate down the straight everywhere for more than a year now.
I watched him trailing Russell at apex, in to the exit of the corner, and I think HAM needs to have his engineer (Bono) go over diff strategies/settings and understand how much weight Russell has on his rear tires. It’s clear hes being gaped on corner exit, in so far as Lewis stands no chance down a straight unless hes within a few hundredths of a second before deployment.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
28th October 2024, 10:38
btw, all this information is derivative of, or contained in their telemetry / data analysis tools.
André
28th October 2024, 15:00
Isn’t Lewis still leaning too much on the pre-2022 formula’s style of driving? He likes to gain on braking, rotate and go, but with the current cars that doesn’t work quite the same. Because of how the floor generated down force. Better to brake earlier but carry higher low speed through the apex to have a stable platform to launch sooner. No?
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
28th October 2024, 16:28
he understands the tires cannot be pushed. His problem is that he keeps complaining about ‘rear grip’ something his race engineer should have gotten to grips with a year+ ago. It’s clear on the video of the Mexican race where Lewis was losing out to his teammate, Lewis also says as much on the post race interviews.
Lewis was much faster than his teammate, but he can’t get out of the corners worth a damn. And he has very real problems overtaking down the straight as a result. Most likely due to the way the differential is used, perhaps some mild suspension setup, and most likely hes being precluded from any real performance, because guys like Toto, want younger drivers for a younger demographic.
It was very obvious in that race that Lewis was much faster than Russell after he got his crew to adjust his front wing. It is also very obvious hes losing shed loads out of the corner and down the straight. Not really on the brakes.
O'Ray
29th October 2024, 13:49
Silverstone 24
Suzuka 23
Baku 24
Jere (@jerejj)
28th October 2024, 6:27
I liked their continuous battle, though.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
28th October 2024, 8:04
I’d be interested to know if it was setup, upgrades or the overly flexible front wing that caused such a top speed deficit.
Hamilton might as well have had no DRS behind Russel. Made the battling more interesting though that he had to really work for it.
Oleg
28th October 2024, 8:58
It’s well at least Russell doesn’t blame Hamilton for losing his pace in the second leg.
And he doesn’t remember that he had to assemble the car after another accident during practice
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
28th October 2024, 15:03
Hamilton’s leaving Merc, simply because he realises the car doesn’t suit his style and there’s no chance that will alter – new 2026 rules of not.
He’ll have done his own research. You don’t get as far as he has and probably thinks the Ferrari set up will suit him better.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
28th October 2024, 16:32
He’s leaving Merc because hes not getting the respect he deserves there. After years with asking engineers to do common sense things and being told hes wrong, being told hes not worth investing in by the brass, being shown the curb by the preferential treatment, while his boss says all lovey dovey everything is equal, bla bla bla.
Lewis deserves a proper send off, and Merc are using him as a test mule, and not helping him in the slightest. Bono could be doing so much more I feel, but I am pretty sure hes being offered a deal he can’t refuse and hes getting towards the later end of his career in the spectacle.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
28th October 2024, 17:58
I think we both understand
O'Ray
29th October 2024, 8:41
He is leaving because they gave him a 1+1 which means Kimi can replace him without notice and other partners in AMG don’t want Lewis. I admire Lewis for his calm and humble nature, I would have voiced out like Moldanaldo when he told Williams that they are screwing him over.
Zebra2inc
29th October 2024, 9:01
Because of the damage plates on the front wing they will have less frontend drag on the straight but suffer through the corners. Which means the car goes faster on the straight