Photo Credit: Mercedes Benz Archives
Lewis Hamilton remarked post 2024 Emilia Romanga GP that Mercedes “don’t have the pace of the others.” However, remaining positive by saying, “we are slowly eeking closer.”
Mercedes have struggled since the beginning of the 2024 season. In the first few races, they had issues with sim data not matching track performance. As well as having problems with a small and inconsistent operating window. Leaving their car undrivable some days.
However, in Miami, Mercedes brought the first half of an upgrade package that appeared to settle some of the larger inconsistencies successfully for the Brackley team.
With the second half of the upgrades being brought in Imola, Mercedes found themself as the fourth fastest team. Importantly ahead of Aston Martin.
Hamilton praised, “race pace is better.” More precisely, Hamilton said in qualifying he was ‘half a second’ slower than the top 3. But in the race trim, they were only ‘three tenths’ off the pace.
Russell reflects on a ‘lonely’ race. After pitting during the race and losing the position to teammate Hamilton, he spent the back half of the race with a large gap in front and behind him.
Similar to Hamilton, Russell admitted, “We are making progress, it’s just our two direct rivals have made equal progress.”
Russel: “We just need to keep chipping away.”
Russell made a late pit stop in the race, which left him conceding a position to Hamilton. When asked why the team made that decision, Russell confessed, “I’m not sure of the reason. I need to talk to the team, but I think we were slightly concerned with the tyre.”
Changing tyres enable Russell to gain the fastest lap, an extra point for Mercedes and Russell. He went on to comment on that, “At the end of the day, as a team, we got one extra point. Obviously, I lost the position to Lewis, but it’s not something I’m going to be talking about tonight, to be honest. So yeah, it was a bit of a lonely race for us.”
No doubt the Brackley team will hope to close the gap further when heading into Monaco next weekend.
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