Mercedes praises teamwork between Hamilton and Russell: "It's useful that they're not focused on themselves"

by admin 13/05/2023 23:13

Mercedes looked back extensively on the Miami Grand Prix, during which George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and sixth respectively after a difficult weekend. They also looked ahead to the updates the German top team will bring to the next race in Imola.

Andrew Shovlin first looks back at Hamilton's qualification, as Hamilton finished in thirteenth place on Saturday. The head engineer of Mercedes mentions various causes for the poor result in a YouTube video by the team. "The underlying problem in Miami was that we simply weren't fast enough. There were cars that are usually one lap behind us that made it difficult for us this time."

Mercedes made the wrong decision for Hamilton

What didn't help was that Hamilton ended up in traffic during his warm-up lap, meaning he had to drive off some of his tires before he could even get going. Shovlin explains that there was a trade-off between sending the Brit out early, in anticipation of possible yellow flags, or waiting until the end for the best track conditions.

Ultimately, the team decided on the former, and given the result, that wasn't very smart, Shovlin now realizes. "We will investigate that timing because we clearly could have made a better trade-off between that risk of yellow flags and the evolution of the track. However, the main thing we need to focus on is improving the speed of the car."

Mercedes has been working on that since Bahrain. At that time, according to Shovlin, the team realized that Red Bull Racing was out of reach. Since then, a certain development direction has been chosen. "In Imola, we will see the first step of all that work. It takes a lot of time in the wind tunnel, you can't do it overnight. We hope to bring more updates throughout the year that will make us faster. However, we're not just looking for improved lap time, but also for a development direction that will give us a better chance in the long run."

Hamilton and Russell prioritize team result over individual performance

Until then, it's a matter of waiting and hoping for good results on race day. According to Shovlin, it won't be the drivers' fault if they don't achieve good results. Hamilton started from P13 but ultimately finished sixth. Thanks to his hard-medium strategy, he even got ahead of Russell at one point, but he let his teammate pass. "It wasn't predicted that they would finish close together, but ultimately this gave us a better chance for a good result with George, if Lewis was okay with letting him go."

And so it went. Russell was able to continue on the hard tire and eventually finished fourth. Shovlin is therefore full of praise for the teamwork that Hamilton and Russell have shown so far, now that Mercedes cannot compete for the prizes. "We do not have a car to fight for titles right now, but it is very useful that both drivers are focused on getting our car to that level - instead of on themselves."