Good news for Hamilton and Russell as developments emerge from Austin.

Mercedes may have secured a podium in Baku, but this was mostly owing to an incident in the final laps that eliminated Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez. Fortunately for Mercedes, this moved George Russell from fifth to third. Since the summer break, Mercedes has had to endure more disappointing results than its victories in Austria, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin hopes to change their fate by revealing the specifics of a major update package that will be released soon.

For the majority of the race, it appeared that Mercedes would have to tolerate finishing outside the top three. Shovlin acknowledged that the squad did not celebrate after placing in the top three: “Well, we weren’t actually popping the champagne and performing cartwheels. We knew we weren’t strong enough to reach the podium on merit.”

The Brit went on to say, “The second stint of the race was much better for us.” The first stint was particularly disappointing. Now, it’s good to have a podium. It’s good to see that no one was wounded in that incident. It was a terrifying situation given the straight and the fact that everyone was still racing around it. But, as I have stated, we understand that we have work to do. We’d rather have a P3 than a P5, but if not for that, we’d have finished P5, and we want to go better.”

Big renovations to come in Austin.
Mercedes won three of the past four races before the summer break, but things have slowed since they returned to racing. Lewis Hamilton finished tenth in Baku, eighth in Zandvoort, and fifth in Monza. Russell has also not produced any noteworthy results during the summer break. Aside from his lucky third place in Baku, he finished eighth in Zandvoort and Monza.