2 hours Ago
Stay informed on all the biggest stories in Formula One . Sign up here to receive the Prime Tire newsletter in your inbox every Monday and Friday. LAS VEGAS — George Russell dashed through Mercedes’ hospitality building, heading toward the media pen dressed in a white puffer jacket.
The sight wasn’t entirely unusual given the cold temperatures in Las Vegas and the media requirements at the conclusion of a grand prix. But what the Briton said in complete joy may have raised a few eyebrows. Advertisement “Vegas, babyyyy!” For the first time since Brazil 2022, Mercedes secured a 1-2 finish, with Russell taking his second win of the season.
That’s the team’s 60th 1-2 finish, only the second team to accomplish that feat (the other is Ferrari). All eyes were on Max Verstappen after he won his fourth world title, but this moment is worth celebrating for Mercedes — and one it needs to learn from. It was a rather straightforward race, even with two retirements (Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon) and a few hiccups down pitlane.
Winning the race came down to the right tire management, on a weekend when graining was discussed across numerous media sessions. But how Mercedes managed to beat out the top three teams? It’s a bit of a mystery. “It’s been a dream all weekend,” Russell said during his on-track post-race interview.
“I don’t know how we’ve been so quick, but I’m just riding this wave right now.” The Las Vegas Grand Prix marked Russell’s third pole position of the season, and he didn’t quite have the best track record when it comes to converting it to a win in 2024. The other two times he lined up P1, at the Canadian GP and British GP, “it’s always been chaos,” he said.
Russell had a clean start in Las Vegas and kept a hold of the lead, even when Charles Leclerc tried to throw his Ferrari past the Mercedes in the early laps. He managed to keep the Ferrari driver back and pulled ahead. When putting up a fight, regardless of whether you’re defending or attacking, there is the worry about whether you’re overusing the tires.
Mercedes, though, didn’t seem to have that problem, regardless of the tire compound. “We were able to push, pushing whenever we wanted to, and there was no graining, neither on the medium, nor on the hard,” said Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ team principal. “See, Charles, defensive a few times, the pressure on George, but he defended great.
I don’t know what the outcome would have been from that, but the driving was exceptional.” Advertisement Both Russell and Lewis Hamilton started on the medium tires, executing a two-stop race for the hard compound just a few laps apart. Russell dove into the pits on Lap 12, and he reckons that first stint won the race.
He said, “Stint one was exceptional, and I knew from there on, the only way we would probably lose the victory is if I grain the tires and open them up. So it was just a case of managing my pace, managing in the right corners, and bringing that home.” From there, Russell drove a controlled race and managed the gap, finishing seven seconds ahead of Hamilton.
The seven-time world champion, meanwhile, started the race 10th and navigated his way through the field, the middle stint being particularly strong. He undercut the Ferrari duo and overtook Verstappen for second. “I had a great time.
When you’re progressing and moving forward, it’s always a great feeling,” Hamilton said. “It felt very much like my old days (karting) at Rye House, starting at the back and coming through, so it was great.” Mercedes was hardly touchable all weekend.
The million dollar question is why. Russell said that the team’s struggles are well-known, such as how they need to lift the car higher when Formula One is racing on bumpy circuits. But that leaves them “in a downforce window where we don’t have any.
And it’s not that we just suddenly forget how to set the car up. It’s just certain circuits require us to put the car in a window it doesn’t like to be.” The Las Vegas Strip Circuit, though, is different.
“On tracks like this where it’s relatively smooth,” Russell continued, “we can get the car quite low, quite stiff, with little or no bumps around the track, we fly.” Qatar is similar, with a fairly smooth surface. And Russell feels the team has “a good shot” next weekend.
Ahead of the final three races of the season, he wanted to put an older engine in from his pool for Las Vegas so he had a fresher engine for Qatar. In hindsight, he said, “I’m kind of glad we didn’t do that now.” Advertisement Hamilton, though, did not sound nearly as confident as his teammate, although he was still optimistic to an extent.
“I don’t think anyone in the team knows why we were as quick as we were this weekend. And everyone will be happy about it. But I think often, in the hotter conditions, we struggle more,” he said.
“Maybe Qatar is not so bad because it’s a little bit cooler there. And the track is very smooth. So maybe we’ll not be too bad at that track.
I think we were OK there last year. Abu Dhabi, maybe less so. But we’ll see.
” The 2024 season has been a roller coaster for Mercedes, fluctuating between poor results (by its standards) and highs like over the summer and in Las Vegas. Silverstone and Spa are two other tracks where it found the sweet spot with its car and, as a result, won. But the Silver Arrows need to better understand how to consistently hit that target, find a balance with the temperatures and stay within the optimal tire window.
This is bigger than the final two races of the year. It’s about 2025, when Mercedes hopes to return to consistently fighting for wins against the top three. “This one is a really important result, because you know, you have locations over the weekend and then normally you can see where everything was here, that we’ve been not so good on in that session, but here, every single session, we were ahead,” Wolff said.
“So, lots of good data that allow us to say, well, at least we know where the sweet spot is, this is where we need to be, and then trying to find out how we can hit that target more often.” Top photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images.
