Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in fresh disagreement as Toto Wolff explains situation
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell found further differences of opinion when Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff gave his opinion on the team’s new improvements at the Austin GP.
Toto Wolff says he has different views to George Russell on Lewis Hamilton’s new car upgrades.
Mercedes brings a new layer to the United States Grand Prix.
Wolff said ahead of this weekend’s event that this would be the last major development for the W14 this season, and technical director James Allison said he had high hopes for the impact it would have on the car.
Friday’s practice was encouraging.
Both drivers finished in the top six on the timesheets, finishing half a second behind Max Verstappen.
Both beat the Dutchman on the day, but the cancellation of Verstappen’s best time played a big part.
Hamilton will start Sunday’s race third on the grid, with Russell two places behind.
After the session, team boss Wolff told reporters that one of his drivers was more excited about the upgrade than the other.
“The lap time that Lewis set was competitive, but the car suddenly became very fast,” said the Austrian.
“Although he was comfortable in certain areas, George was not happy with the way the car worked for him.”
Hamilton himself said he was happy with his car.
“This is an improvement,” he told reporters. This is one of the first updates I’ve experienced in years.
So this is positive and we need to go through this step two or three more times to get into hyper-competitive mode.”
Mercedes track technical director Andrew Shovlin was positive about the upgrades after qualifying.
“The data looks like the improved floor is delivering what we expected and the drivers are feeling good, which is encouraging,” he said.
“Lewis had a relatively easy day to drive.
At times I thought we had a chance to reach the Pole, but in the end it was very close.
Unfortunately, he didn’t go much further than that on his last attempt, but he still managed a strong P3.”
But Russell was less positive after what he described as “a very difficult day”. He said: “I wasn’t going at the right speed and I couldn’t figure out why.
While the updates certainly brought improvements, it was a really weird Friday. But as a driver, I shouldered it.
We have to try to figure out why it’s not as fast as we thought.
“I’m very happy with P5, because at some points it looked like I wouldn’t even make it to Q3.
My last lap was a reasonable effort.
“I made a small mistake in the first corner and that could have cost me another position on the grid.”
