Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Mercedes is left looking for answers ahead of the 2023 Miami Grand Prix
It was a qualifying Saturday to forget for George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, and the entire Mercedes Formula 1 team.
Hamilton failed to get out of the second qualifying session and will start in 13th position on Sunday. Russell fared slightly better, as he advanced into Q3 and will start in sixth position. Still, no one seems happy right now around the team, starting with Russell.
“The car is just not working for us this weekend. We’re struggling a lot with the balance and it’s bouncing around a little bit. The performance isn’t coming to us which is a shame as everyone is working so hard to achieve it,” said Russell after qualifying in the team’s media report. “As the grip has been laid down and the track has improved, we’ve seemingly got slower. Clearly, this is a bit of an outlier as a circuit as can be seen by the pace of some of the other cars. Ultimately though, we need to do a better job.”
Despite advancing to Q3 and starting in the third row, Russell was less than satisfied.
“I’m not going to take any pride in qualifying P6. We’re working for more and we’re capable of more. It’s challenging as in FP1, everything felt smooth. As the weekend has progressed, the feeling in the car has got worse,” added Russell. “It’s rare that that happens but it just hasn’t quite come together here in Miami.”
As for Hamilton, he pointed to traffic, and timing.
“It was a struggle out there as we weren’t that quick today. It was quite an up and down session; there were a couple of good moments where the car was feeling alive, and I thought we were going to be OK. It was frustrating that we didn’t get into Q3 as we should have. I was hopeful, but the timing at the end was just off,” said the seven-time World Champion. “I got backed up by a lot of traffic in the final corner and just couldn’t get the tyres in the window. Overall, we just struggled with the balance of the car. I gave it everything I had but it didn’t happen today. I’ll now get my head down and try and come back tomorrow.”
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff shared the frustrations of his drivers.
“In the end, the car we have right now is simply lacking performance – and our problems compound from there. It has a very narrow operating window, and it’s on a knife edge for the drivers. When it’s good, we can deliver solid performances. If it’s bad, then we struggle, and that’s what happened today. We can’t take satisfaction from being P6 when that’s only thanks to the red flag – and probably our true level was behind that,” said Wolff.
Even when trying to find a silver lining, it seemed Wolff fell short in the attempt.
“We will now see what we can do tomorrow and try to recover from our starting positions; there were some signs of stronger pace on high fuel, but we shouldn’t go into the race expecting miracles,” said Wolff.
“It’s going to be a tough battle for points.”
Andrew Shovlin, the team’s Trackside Engineering Director, made the case that the team was falling behind the rest of the field as the surface in Miami improved. “Clearly, we’ve not got the measure of this track,” said Shovlin. “We started the weekend well when the track was at its worst, but as the circuit has gripped up it feels like others are getting the benefit and we’ve stood still.”
The results bear that out. Mercedes was strong in the first practice session Friday, with Russell and Hamilton atop the time sheets in P1 and P2, respectively. But since then the Silver Arrows have moved backward, or as is more likely, the rest of the field has improved.
Whether Mercedes can catch up remains to be seen, but as Shovlin stated, they will do everything they can to turn things around on Sunday. Given the state of the track, there may be opportunities for the team. “We’ll put all our energy into preparing for the race now. The grid is mixed up so that may help us find opportunity to move forward tomorrow,” said Shovlin. “If the degradation is high, or we get incidents, then we may be able to bring our second set of hard tyres into play which could provide some opportunity. However, the real opportunity will come from good long run pace. After the interrupted sessions, it’s impossible to know where everyone is going to fall out so tomorrow will be one of those races where we’re very much forming the plans as we go.”
