MIAMI — When Mercedes arrived in Florida for the 2024 F1 Miami Grand Prix, the team brought with it several upgrades in hopes of improving the W15’s performance.
But while George Russell qualified seventh in Saturday’s Miami Grand Prix qualifying session, with teammate Lewis Hamilton just behind him in eighth, Russell said the team is still searching for answers. I admitted something.
“I think we have to accept as a team that seventh, eighth is where we are,” Russell told the media. SB Nation, following the preliminaries. “I think it’s now pretty clear what changes we need to make to the car to improve it.”
The driver then articulated the problems the team has been grappling with over the past two seasons, and explained how Mercedes has vacillated from one effort to the next in search of an answer.
“You know, we had certain issues last year,” Russell continued. “The team went to great lengths to fix those issues. And I think we probably overcompensated and went too far on the other end. So we ended up in this position. I don’t think it’s surprising that we realized that, and yeah, we need to try to make some changes.”
Ian Parkes excellent F1 analystand asked Russell to elaborate on Mercedes’ situation, and the driver responded at length.
“You know, the problem that Lewis and I had last year was this kind of mean rear end, and now all of a sudden we’re having trouble turning the car around in slow corners and it’s the front side.” [end] It’s kind of a washout,” Russell explained. “So I think we’ve gone too far in the opposite direction. We need to find a middle ground between where we were last year and where we ended up now.”
Russell then admitted that change won’t happen overnight and unfortunately for Mercedes, the clock is ticking.
“But I think you know the reality of it,” the driver continued. “When you bring an upgrade to a car, you know, it has to be physically pulled out, put in a wind tunnel, manufactured, and then brought into the car.
“So it’s not like we can create something overnight and make it happen here tomorrow. We could potentially be thinking about it over a few weeks and a few race times.”
When asked if there was a time frame the team was looking at in terms of unlocking the W15’s potential, or perhaps more accurately solving its current problems, Russell could not provide one, but , found a positive perspective.
“Honestly, I cannot give you any deadlines, but it is positive that we now understand why we are struggling. [being lost]. I don’t think we’ve lost our way,” Russell said. “We know there is a problem with the car and we have a clear direction in which to go.”
Mr. Russell then ended the session with a realistic note.
“This is a race car that we own, so I think we have to manage our expectations and not lose our spirit. It’s not like we’re suddenly going to arrive at the next race and fight for pole position.” Russell continued. “We work hard and hope it happens now, but on Saturday afternoon we were the fourth fastest team and on Sunday afternoon we were in the middle of the third fastest team. That’s the reality and we need to build from there.”
And so Russell departed. Drivers and teams are still looking for a solution.
