Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are struggling to understand why optimal performance eluded Mercedes over the Italian Grand Prix, as Formula 1’s pecking order looks unpredictable.
Hamilton topped both the second and third free practice sessions at Monza, as well as Q2, but he and Russell ended up qualifying sixth and third respectively, before finishing the Monza race only fifth and seventh in that order.
Hamilton was just 22.8 seconds shy of race winner Charles Leclerc but said that Mercedes was suffering “more degradation” as well as “generally lacking one-or-two-tenths” per lap in race conditions.
Asked about the W15’s balance, the seven-time world champion added: “It was OK, it was nothing special. You're either graining the left front or graining the left rear. We just didn't have the pace. We have to go and look and try to understand why.
“Also, because we looked better on Friday, we got almost slower through the weekend, or others got faster, or we were too light and they were heavy, who knows?”
Russell’s relatively poor result was mostly down to an error in the first corner on the opening lap, which forced him to take to the escape road and immediately dropped him to seventh. Losing “a huge amount of performance” to front wing damage in the wake of the incident, he had also had to make an earlier-than-planned pitstop.
The incident was highly detrimental to his odds of achieving a victory or even a podium finish – but this would have been a tall order anyway, the Mercedes driver reckons.
“I just got caught out by Oscar [Piastri]'s braking point and I touched the brakes, started locking up because I was so close to him and I had to take avoiding action,” Russell said. “It's quite upsetting when your whole weekend goes away from you so quick, but looking at the pace afterwards I don't think we would have been able to keep up with the McLarens and Ferrari.
“It was a really disappointing day, but ultimately didn't have the pace. The sport's a bit strange at the moment with how Red Bull have lost so much pace. Ferrari seemed to be struggling in Zandvoort and all the races prior, but then they were so quick on Sunday in Zandvoort and this whole weekend, so I don't really know.”
Meanwhile, Hamilton is hopeful that upcoming upgrades, albeit minor, will help the team in the fight against other top teams after all six McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes cars qualified within two-tenths of each other at Monza.
“There's definitely some performance to come over the course of the next few races,” he said. “We do have small bits. I don't know if we have anything huge coming, but hopefully we have some more performance.”
A two-time winner in the last five rounds, Hamilton therefore expects to have “another chance to fight for a win at some stage”, explaining: “I'm hoping if we make some progress, there will be some tracks that will be a little bit better than we are [at Monza].”
