2 weeks Ago By Michelle
George Russell has refuted Toto Wolff’s claim that Mercedes are in “serious trouble” with the budget cap after his huge 35G crash in Friday’s second practice in Mexico. Russell was winded when he lost control of his W15 at Turn 8 just 10 minutes in FP2 and slammed sideways into the TecPro barrier. Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock Wolff revealed the extent of the damage, telling Sky Deutschland that while Mercedes could “keep the old chassis, everything else has to go as “two corners of the car are completely gone.
So it’s serious damage.” But more of a concern for the team principal was the impact it would have on Mercedes’ budget as it was Russell second big crash in as many weeks. “ We’re in serious trouble ,” he revealed.
“We are all struggling to stay within the budget cap and of course we had a bad accident with Kimi at Monza. Then the second one with George last week and now again.” Russell bounced back from his crash to qualify P5 on Saturday where he was four-tenths down on Carlos Sainz’s pole position time .
Speaking to the media including PlanetF1.com after the session, he was asked about Wolff’s “serious trouble” comment. “No, no concerns for the budget cap, because we’ve always got a bit of margin, and you’re always weighing up what you put into this season versus what you put into next season,” he said.
👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates 👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates He does, however, concede that Mercedes may not have to make a few compromises to ensure they don’t exceed the cap but given he’s in favour of keeping the old floor on his W15, he’s okay with that. “Now, potentially, we may have to compromise the rest of this season, which, to be honest, I’d probably be in favour for because we’re not fighting for a championship. “I’d be more than happy staying on the old floor if that gives us a better chance into next year.
“But, you know, I think we’ll be able to repair the floor from Austin. I think that’s the plan. It wasn’t as bad as we initially expected.
And that would be that should be out in Brazil.” Russell will line up fifth on the grid for Sunday’s race , one place ahead of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, and declared he was very happy with the performance of his W15’s “old bits”. “A different one [car] to yesterday because that one was broken,” he said.
“I’m really happy with the recovery, obviously we’re still on the old bits from 12 races ago. My lap felt really, really strong and I’m super happy with. “Just a tenth from P3 and after yesterday we’d have taken that.
I’m not too sure what it means for tomorrow, obviously you’ve got Checo and Piastri out of position. P5 is probably the most we could have hoped for. “The three teams in front have got a bit of a battle on their hands, so maybe the race will come towards us.
” Read next: Winners and losers from the 2024 Mexican Grand Prix qualifying.
