A snappy Mercedes that was difficult to handle was brought to Brazil, with the team lucky to earn points this weekend.
The 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend has been a long one for Mercedes. The Brackley-based team came to Brazil without upgrades, instead choosing the most updated package for both drivers, which included a new floor.
In Austin, both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell crashed the W15 in separate sessions. And in Mexico, Russell had a nasty shunt in FP2. As a result of the high number of incidents for Mercedes in recent months, Mercedes will not be bringing any major upgrades to the remaining Grands Prix, Brazil included.
Ever since they arrived in Brazil, Mercedes have been nothing short of disappointing. With only one FP1 session as this is a Sprint weekend, there was only so much for Mercedes to learn.
A slow start
Something that they could not ignore was the intense bouncing they experienced on the newly resurfaced track in Interlagos. Towards the end of the Free Practice session, Lewis Hamilton radioed in his discomfort, saying that he was “in pain”. Russell too complained about the bouncing.
To limit the discomfort, Mercedes decided to raise their ride height. Naturally, this means that speed would be sacrificed, and as seen at the Sprint race, the Silver Arrows were far off the pace.
Lewis Hamilton couldn’t get through to SQ3 on Friday, starting the Sprint in P11, whilst his teammate started in P6, unable to challenge for a front-row start.
“Finishing P6 is reflective of where we are right now, at the back of the front pack of teams, and with a pace delta to the next group behind us.” – George Russell after qualifying in P6 for the Sprint.
“We lifted the car during the break and improved the situation, but the pace simply wasn’t there when it came to the timed laps – the balance is on a knife edge, and the car just so tricky to drive and I couldn’t attack any of the corners as I wanted to.” – Lewis Hamilton after qualifying in P11 for the Sprint.
Come Saturday at the Sprint, both Mercedes drivers were stagnant. Hamilton who started on the outside heading into Turn 1 dropped to P14 despite having a good start, whilst Russell couldn’t gain ground on those ahead.
Rain, delays and Red Flags galore
Qualifying was set to begin late afternoon local time on Saturday, however, weather conditions deemed the track conditions unfavourable for on-track action.
After multiple delays and no starts on Saturday, it was officially announced that Qualifying would be postponed to Sunday morning, 7:30 am local time.
There were no delays come Sunday morning, however, the rain did begin pouring before the start of the session. With the rain at a standstill, drivers were finally able to get on track. And even with the rain levelling the playing field, the W15 proved hard to handle.
Franco Colapinto went into the barriers in Q1, calling for a Red Flag. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were in P18 and P20 respectively. When the session resumed, Russell was able to improve into P2. Hamilton improved to P14 but was dropped into P16 as other drivers set their final times.
“This damn car, man. I’ve got nothing on the rear.
The car was not driveable.
The car I have right now is the worst I’ve ever driven, so I probably won’t be going very far [in the race] with it. It’s undrivable.” – Lewis Hamilton after a shocking Q1 exit.
Both Russell and Hamilton were dealing with brake issues throughout the race, findng it difficult to stop the car. Not ideal for a wet race.
Onboards showed a very snappy W15 as Hamilton wrestled his car to the finish line. All weekend long, of the two Mercedes drivers, Hamilton has seemed more uncomfortable than Russell. The 7 time Champion was unhappy with the balance of the car. His last efforts in Q1 were a clear show of the W15’s weakness.
Q2 and Q3 saw drivers switch to the Intermediate tyres, and a couple of Red Flags caused by both Aston Martin drivers and the other Williams of Alex Albon.
But to Mercedes’ delight, Russell secured a front-row start for the main race, slotting into P2. Lando Norris earned pole, while RB’s Yuki Tsunoda managed an incredible P3. Alpine’s’ Esteban Ocon and Tsunoda’s teammate Liam Lawson rounded up the top 5.
It’s lights out and away we go?
During the formation lap, Lance Stroll lost control and crashed his newly repaired Aston Martin. The start of the race was therefore aborted.
However, the drivers did another formation lap, despite that not being the order. Lando Norris who started on pole led the pack and is under investigation. Also under investigation for that starting infringement are George Russell, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson.
To add to that, Lewis Hamilton and Russell are under investigation for a technical infringement. Russell and Hamilton had their tyre pressures adjusted during the second grid start, with the tyres still on their cars, which is against the regulations.
It’s lights out and we go again, but it’s real this time!
Once the race finally started, both Mercedes drivers had a good start. George Russell snatched the lead of the race from McLaren’s Lando Norris, whilst Hamilton made his way up from P14 (after grid penalties were applied) to P11.
On those Intermediate tyres, Russell was able to hold on to the lead of the race for the first X laps. Hamilton meanwhile, despite a good start had no pace to make his way up the field.
“The ride is really bad. [The] car is bouncing so much.
The car’s not driveable. Locking up, bouncing everywhere.” – Lewis Hamilton on the team radio on Lap 9 and Lap 21.
Racing for the win, George and Lando both pitted at the end of lap 29. However, the Virtual Safety Car ended before they exited the pits, putting them behind Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly.
To their further demise, red flags were waved two laps later. With the rain pouring down again, Franco Colapinto, much like Stroll earlier, crashed his newly repaired Williams.
“I said it! I should have stayed out!” – George Russell on pitting before the red flag.
The rolling start saw many, including Russell, go off track as they all struggled for grip on their Inters on the wet track. A few laps later, Russell gained P4 as Leclerc went off the track. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton had a better start at the rolling start, with the 7-time champ moving up to P9 from P11 in two laps.
About 30 laps later, Max Verstappen crossed the line to win his first race since Spain, extending his lead in the standings against Lando Norris who finished in P6 after some mistakes across the race. Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly of Alpine were on the remaining steps of the podium.
The Mercedes duo managed to finish in the points, with Russell in P4 and Hamilton in P10.
The contrast in the Mercedes garages
What was clear was that the Mercedes did not look like an easy car to drive all weekend.
Issues that they both faced during the race were brake issues throughout the race, finding it difficult to stop the car, as well as struggling to get the tyres up to an optimum temperature. Not ideal for a wet race.
And despite no upgrades brought to Brazil by the Silver Arrows, the British duo were running slightly different specifications, and likely will for the remainder of the season.
George Russell was running unspecified tests with the team now shifting focus to their 2025 project.
“It is certainly a good opportunity for us to do a bit more experimentation in the race weekends, but the key thing for us is making sure we have done the important bits of learning ahead of the 2025 season.
“We are not bringing any more major updates to the car, it might be that we have some test items, some small bits of bodywork that we are looking at but again this would be very much in the context of learning for the future.
“There will be lots of opportunity to do set up work, lots of opportunity to use the two cars to compare different approaches and hopefully over the next few [races] we can just add to the learning that we have already made during this season.” – Andrew Shovlin in Mercedes’ Mexican GP debrief.
This gives a different perspective to Hamilton’s weekend. Whilst his teammate did struggle too, especially in terms of pace, his car did appear slightly more balanced. Hamilton meanwhile struggled more with an unbalanced car with very low grip on his rears, leading to the very snappy W15 that the onboards showed this weekend.
“It’s like, no suspension, bouncing on the tyre everywhere. Can’t get on the power anywhere. The worst ride we’ve ever had particularly through corners, just so stiff.
The team could have won also, today. At least one car was behaving okay.” – Lewis Hamilton post race.
Mixed emotions
Hamilton will be leaving Brazil with mixed emotions, as the W15 is not the only car he drove at Interlagos. After qualifying, Lewis Hamilton drove the iconic McLaren MP4/5B. That was home hero Ayrton Senna’s 1990 Championship-winning car. An honorary citizen of Brazil, Lewis Hamilton had the pleasure of driving his hero’s car in Brazil.
The 7-time world champion enjoyed the drive so much that he ran more laps than he was supposed to. He even jokingly stated that he would prefer to drive Senna’s McLaren over the Mercedes W15 for the race in Brazil. Unfortunately for Hamilton though, it was the W15 that he drove when the lights went out.
It was a rather disappointing weekend for Mercedes, despite both drivers finishing in the top 10. Russell would have hoped for more on the track where he got his maiden F1 win, and Hamilton rounded out his final Brazil race with Mercedes with struggle.
