BREAKING NEWS: Mercedes Attributes Austin Struggles to Flawed Setup, Not Technical Faults
BREAKING NEWS: Mercedes Attributes Austin Struggles to Flawed Setup, Not Technical Faults
Mercedes believes its inconsistent performance at the United States Grand Prix in Austin was due to an overly aggressive car setup that pushed its limits by riding too low to the ground. The team was left puzzled by how they could be so competitive during the sprint qualifying—where both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were in the mix for pole position—only to struggle during the race itself. The difficulties became more pronounced when both drivers experienced nearly identical spins at Turn 19—Russell’s in qualifying and Hamilton’s during the race. These incidents raised questions about whether a recent upgrade to the W15 car had introduced unexpected problems.
Team principal Toto Wolff acknowledged the difficulties and expressed frustration, suggesting that the promising form the team showed before the summer break—when Mercedes managed to secure three wins from four races—seems to have evaporated. According to Wolff, the team no longer enters race weekends with the confidence that they can compete for a win. Instead, Mercedes finds itself as the fourth-strongest team on the grid, trailing Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren.
“We’re back to being the underdogs,” Wolff said. He made it clear that the team is in a very different position compared to earlier in the season, and its expectations have shifted. Rather than coming to races expecting to fight for victories, Mercedes now approaches weekends hoping to make the best of its current position in the pecking order.
However, the team is still working hard to understand the car’s performance in Austin. James Allison, the team’s technical director, offered some insights during Mercedes’ post-race debrief, indicating that the issue may not be as complex as initially feared. He suggested that the primary problem stemmed from the car’s setup decisions rather than any fundamental flaw in the W15’s design or the recent upgrade. The setup, which “flirted” too much with the ground, likely contributed to the inconsistency between the impressive showing in sprint qualifying and the struggle during the race.
Mercedes engineers are continuing to analyze the data from the weekend to pinpoint exactly what went wrong. Despite the frustrations of the weekend, Allison’s comments suggest that the team believes the issues in Austin were more a matter of setup than any larger technical concern, offering hope that these problems can be addressed in future races.
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