Mercedes takes delight in encouraging tyre management after tough Austin weekend
Following a tough race weekend at the United States Grand Prix, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff that the Brackley-based outfit can take delight in the W15's tyre management in the 56-lap Austin race.
Mercedes endured a catastrophic qualifying on Saturday, with Lewis Hamilton failing to make it out of Q1 and his team-mate George Russell losing control of his W15 and crashing into the barriers on his final push lap.
With Mercedes mechanics forced to revert to the Singapore-spec aero kit on Russell's car, the team was found in breach of the sporting regulations which meant that the Briton was required to start from the pit lane.
The two-time F1 race winner made a long first stint on the hards work well and managed to overtake Perez late on to finish sixth, collecting some vital points both for himself and his team.
Following his tough qualifying session, Hamilton had a great start that had lifted him to P12. However, approaching the penultimate corner on Lap 2, the Briton lost the rear by himself and got beached in the gravel.
Mercedes team boss Wolff indicated a car issue rather than driver error was to blame. Hamilton himself insisted that a gust of wind may have contributed to the spin, but he also suggested that the comprehensive upgrade package Mercedes introduced at Austin could have also played a part in unsettling the W15's balance.
Reflecting on Mercedes' weekend in Texas, team boss Toto Wolff noted: "It has been a tough weekend overall here in Austin. We see that there is pace in the car, as was shown on Friday and with George in the race today, but we are still dealing with its inconsistency. That is not something unique to us though. Different teams have come into and out of form throughout the season, but it is something we will be working hard to improve over the final five races of the season.
"The positive from today was that George was quick throughout and produced a good fightback from his pit lane start. The team in the garage worked hard last night to get the car ready for the race, with a large workload to get through as we had to revert on specification.
"George drove a strong race and was particularly quick on the Hard compound. That enabled us to extend his first stint and ultimately claim P6 in the final few laps. Unfortunately, it was a disappointing day for Lewis. He wasn’t pushing at all but a gust of wind, combined with the dirty air from the car ahead, and he lost the car.
"We need to look at that, and what happened with George yesterday, to understand why the car reacted like that. Lewis Hamilton is not a driver that loses a car like that on lap two of a race, so there is something there that we need to understand."
Mercedes trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin also took delight in the way the W15 looked after the tyres after the team struggled with tyre overheating in the sprint race on Saturday.
"Given that we had one car starting at the back and one in the pit lane, we had realistic expectations as to what could be achieved today. Lewis made a good start and was quickly up to P12. Unfortunately, that didn't last long as he lost the rear in turn 19. We're still investigating what caused that, but in any case, his race was over.
"George was making steady progress through the field in his first stint, but it still took him until the halfway point to get any clear air to judge pace. Encouragingly, the car was hanging on to its tyres well and that was allowing us to extend. P6 was the best he could have achieved today, and he drove a good race to get there.
"As a team we have underachieved across the weekend and are under no illusions that we need to do better. The update kit has shown some promise, but we've not had a single clean session, and we'll leave here not knowing what we could have done if we'd started near the front with a car in our latest aero specification. We will look to answer that question next weekend in Mexico."
