Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (SP11, P10, 1 pt): 5/10
The new iteration of the W15 that was introduced in Austin is certainly not proving a friend to Lewis Hamilton, who is in his final few races with Mercedes before decamping to Ferrari in 2025. Friday was objectively awful for the former world champion - 16th in practice foretold missing the second cut in sprint qualifying later in the day, and he made no progress when it came to the race on Saturday. He had a shocker in qualifying for the Grand Prix on Sunday morning and missed the first cut. He did make a good start to the race and was on the cusp of the points but then seemed to stall, losing out to a succession of rivals including Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman. He was back in play by the red flag and looked revitalised on a fresh set of intermediates, but still lost out to Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez after the second safety car restart. He got one place back from Perez on lap 55 which enabled him to salvage a single point from a weekend from hell.
Liam Lawson, RB (SP9, P9, 2 pts): 7.5/10
Liam Lawson only has a short time to show what he can do and earn himself a full season in F1 in 2025, and he's doing a solid job with his second points finish in three races since taking over from Daniel Ricciardo at RB. He started the sprint race in the top eight but missed out on the points after yielding a place to Red Bull stablemate Sergio Perez. Sunday morning wet qualifying helped him secure fifth place on the grid for the Grand Prix, but he dropped to ninth after being tipped into a spin by Oscar Piastri. The red flag that benefitted Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly left Lawson in 11th for the restart: while He was able to pick off Lewis Hamilton and gained another place when Fernando Alonso spun out, P9 was the best he could do from there.
