Mercedes notches their first podium of the 2024 F1 season in Montreal
Progress has truly come at Mercedes.
The team endured a slow start to the 2024 Formula 1 season, but a series of upgrades Mercedes began rolling out at the Miami Grand Prix have started to pay off. At this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix the team secured their first pole position of the year, as George Russell nipped Max Verstappen to start up front on Sunday.
While Russell could not hold off Verstappen for the second win of his F1 career, he did come across the line third, for the team’s first podium of the 2024 campaign.
In his post-race comments, Russell admitted that he made some mistakes on a wet and chaotic afternoon that may have cost Mercedes a shot at the win, but he recognized how far the team has come this season.
“I’m disappointed with myself today. I made too many errors that set us back and cost us a chance of victory,” started Russell in the team’s post-race report. “I was really pushing the limits out there.”
Still, the Mercedes driver noted that disappointment over a podium is a far cry from where the season began.
“That said, it feels great to be disappointed with P3. We’ve made small steps over the past few races and to come to Canada, get pole position and a podium is really encouraging,” added Russell. “We’ve been one of the fastest cars on track all weekend, so we’ve definitely made progress. There are many positives to take away from here.”
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff hailed the entire organization, and the work that has gone into the team’s progress these past few weeks.
“It has been an encouraging weekend. We have taken the right steps recently and brought updates that are working well. Directionally, we seem to be adding performance every Grand Prix,” described Wolff. “Everyone at Brackley and Brixworth continues to work incredibly hard and it’s great to see their efforts rewarded with our first podium of the year. I hope that we can continue this positive trajectory.
“Looking ahead to Barcelona, it’s a circuit that really tests a car. We are excited to go there and truly understand where we are performance wise.”
Teammate Lewis Hamilton secured a fourth-place finish, as well as a bonus point for the fastest lap, giving the team their best result of the entire season as Mercedes banked 28 points on the weekend.
As they head to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix in two weeks’ time, they sit fourth in the Constructors’ Championship. But feeling disappointed over a podium illustrates just how much progress they have made.
