Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had a fast start to the Brazilian Grand Prix, but their speeds quickly dropped, and Yuki Tsunoda even passed them.
For Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, Toto Wolff issued a warning, saying Mercedes cannot increase their race pace by using a “magic screw.”
However, after a challenging Sprint for the Silver Arrows, they will be hoping to find a way to accelerate their vehicles. Both drivers got off to a fast start and advanced quickly, but by the end of the short-form race, they were having tire problems.
By the end of the opening lap, George Russell had moved up to second place. Although he managed to record the fastest lap of the race, he lost ground to fourth place in the early going due to overuse of his soft tires.
Lewis Hamilton’s story was likewise similar. The seven-time world champion, who had started fifth, made good early progress but, by the finish, was skating around and had lost positions to Charles Leclerc and even Yuki Tsunoda.
The results of the Sprint raise questions about the team’s pace in the main Grand Prix, according to team principal Wolff, who called it a blow for his team. “We started off pushing really hard because the car wasn’t balanced properly, and then you put in some sliding and it just killed the tyres,” he explained.
When asked to elaborate on his remarks regarding the Mercedes cars’ balance, he said, “I think we had a too weak rear end and it’s balancing them on the knife’s edge.” Maybe something we should learn for tomorrow is how to maintain the pace. However, it was a painful day.
“I don’t believe that everything can be fixed by turning a magic screw. It was quite strange. Today, everything worked against us. We must seriously consider all of our options for improving tomorrow. Not a good day.”
Race pace has been Mercedes’ strong suit this season so it will no doubt be worrying for Wolff to have watched how the Sprint played out. Even more concerning was the fact Russell, their best finisher, was 21 seconds behind their engine customer McLaren as Lando Norris finished second.
The Brit had started in pole position after an excellent lap in the Shootout earlier in the day. But he lost out to Max Verstappen going into the first corner and the Red Bull racer then managed the race well to keep the McLaren at arm’s length.
A frustrated Norris said of the race: “My initial start was good but the second phase of the launch… maybe I was a bit conservative. I don’t think I had any wheelspin, but I was just a little bit on the safe side. So, things to improve for tomorrow.”
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