Sprint Qualifying did not go as Mercedes would have hoped at the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton was already eliminated in SQ2, while George Russell was not close to challenge his rivals that finished ahead of the Briton at Interlagos. Here is how the German team reacted to their performance.
While both Mercedes drivers can have good memories from Brazil, as George Russell won his first F1Grand Prix at this circuit, while Hamilton won his first championship in Sao Paulo back in 2008, things did not go their way this Friday.
“It has been a difficult day for me. I think the ride on the bumpy surface has been pretty bad for everyone, and it made FP1 very challenging inside the cockpit,” Hamilton commented on his previous message over team radio, as in FP1, he said he is ‘in pain’. Then in SQ2, Hamilton could only finish in eleventh place.
“We lifted the car during the break and improved the situation, but the pace simply wasn’t there when it came to the timed laps – the balance is on a knife edge, and the car just so tricky to drive and I couldn’t attack any of the corners as I wanted to,” he continued in the team’s report.
“I hope we can move forward from P11 during the Sprint and keep working to figure out how to find the sweet spot of the balance in qualifying tomorrow afternoon,” the seven-time world champion concluded.
Russell also struggles with similar issue
“That was a challenging session as the track cooled through Sprint Qualifying. Finishing P6 is reflective of where we are right now, at the back of the front pack of teams, and with a pace delta to the next group behind us,” Russell revealed after the sesion.
“I enjoy the challenge of Sprint weekends, getting straight into the action, and of course today has also brought the slightly unexpected challenge of a very bumpy track – which obviously is the same for everyone. For tomorrow, I will be looking to move forward and using the Sprint to work out where we can improve the car for qualifying and the Grand Prix on Sunday.”
Shovlin sees Mercedes’ problems, hopes for better Sprint
“Running in very warm conditions in FP1, it quickly became clear that the resurfaced track was as bumpy as ever, and that this would provide us with a set-up challenge for the weekend. Both drivers completed decent long runs, and we made relatively small changes going into Sprint Qualifying. Once we began running, it became clear that neither George nor Lewis were completely happy with the balance, suffering with snaps at the rear,” the trackside engineering director explained what went wrong in Brazil.
“This cost Lewis confidence and lap time, and saw him knocked out of SQ2 by less than 0.1s. George was able to reach SQ3, eventually taking P6 but with a substantial gap to Piastri on pole.”
However, Shovlin is optimistic ahead of Saturday afternoon. “The Sprint tomorrow is going to be useful to learn about the long run balance ahead of qualifying in the afternoon. It’s normally a good circuit for overtaking so if we have pace, there’s every opportunity for both drivers to move forward.”
