Progress has actually come at Mercedes.
The crew endured a sluggish begin to the 2024 System 1 season, however a collection of upgrades Mercedes started rolling out on the Miami Grand Prix have began to repay. At this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix the crew secured their first pole place of the yr, as George Russell nipped Max Verstappen to start out up entrance on Sunday.
Whereas Russell couldn’t maintain off Verstappen for the second win of his F1 profession, he did come throughout the road third, for the crew’s first podium of the 2024 marketing campaign.
In his post-race feedback, Russell admitted that he made some errors on a moist and chaotic afternoon that will have price Mercedes a shot on the win, however he acknowledged how far the crew has come this season.
“I’m dissatisfied with myself right now. I made too many errors that set us again and value us an opportunity of victory,” began Russell within the crew’s post-race report. “I used to be actually pushing the boundaries on the market.”
Nonetheless, the Mercedes driver famous that disappointment over a podium is a far cry from the place the season started.
“That stated, it feels nice to be dissatisfied with P3. We’ve made small steps over the previous few races and to come back to Canada, get pole place and a podium is absolutely encouraging,” added Russell. “We’ve been one of many quickest vehicles on monitor all weekend, so we’ve positively made progress. There are numerous positives to remove from right here.”
Mercedes Staff Principal Toto Wolff hailed the whole group, and the work that has gone into the crew’s progress these previous few weeks.
“It has been an encouraging weekend. We now have taken the proper steps just lately and introduced updates which can be working properly. Directionally, we appear to be including efficiency each Grand Prix,” described Wolff. “Everybody at Brackley and Brixworth continues to work extremely arduous and it’s nice to see their efforts rewarded with our first podium of the yr. I hope that we will proceed this constructive trajectory.
“Waiting for Barcelona, it’s a circuit that basically assessments a automobile. We’re excited to go there and actually perceive the place we’re efficiency sensible.”
Teammate Lewis Hamilton secured a fourth-place end, in addition to a bonus level for the quickest lap, giving the crew their greatest results of the whole season as Mercedes banked 28 factors on the weekend.
As they head to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix in two weeks’ time, they sit fourth within the Constructors’ Championship. However feeling dissatisfied over a podium illustrates simply how a lot progress they’ve made.
