“Really a difficult weekend” for Mercedes

Parts of 7th and 11th places, the Mercedes by George Russell and Lewis Hamilton had a good start to the Grand Prix, running in the top 10 until their first stops. On the 16th lap of the race, Hamilton suffered a broken power unit, causing him to retire.

A premature end to a difficult weekend for the seven-time world champion, who will not have been comfortable with his car than during the first free practice session. From the second session on Friday, things got complicated for Hamilton, in difficulty with his W15.

“I didn't feel [the engine losing power], it just broke suddenly! It's frustrating, because it was very early in the race! I was hoping to be able to come back with a different strategy from the others, but these kinds of things happen. We weren't bad in the fast corners but we suffered in the slow corners. Whereas the previous weekends we were bad in the fast corners and good in the slow ones… Really a difficult weekend”, he explained after his abandonment.

Russell in the wall, Wolff combative

For his part, George Russell managed to stay in the points, nestled in the exhausts of Fernando Alonso at the end of the test. The two drivers were fighting for sixth place until the 57th lap of the event. In this penultimate loop, the Briton lost control of his car and hit the wall at turn 6, ending his race.

“I have no idea what happened, I was half a second behind Fernando before the corner and suddenly I was in his gearbox. I lost the car, went wide, hit the wall and then it was a pretty impressive few seconds. A disappointing end after a difficult race », Russell said.

The stewards have since deliberated, and ruled that Fernando Alonso had driven in a "potentially dangerous" manner, by slowing down earlier than usual before the corner. This slowdown caused a rapid rise of the Mercedes on theAston Martin, having possibly contributed to the loss of control of number 63. Toto wolff, the boss of the Mercedes team, was also the first to point out the behavior of the Spanish driver: “For George it is clear that Alonso braked earlier than he had in previous laps. It's now up to the commissioners to determine what caused this. »

The Austrian also looked back on the Silver Arrows weekend in its entirety. Where the Mercedes had surprised, Hamilton finishing on the podium and Russell having led the start of the race, things were diametrically opposite in 2024. Wolff assures him, if the start of the season is “difficult”, he remains convinced that the German team can reverse the trend during the year.

“It was a disappointing race to end a difficult weekend. No one is happy with our current situation, but we are determined to turn it around. It is difficult to accept, but we will remain calm and serene. We've seen other [teams] that have shown that when you make the right decisions, things can turn around quickly. This is what we want to do. »

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