Hamilton sticks with Mercedes’ upgrades for Mexican GP

Lewis Hamilton has chosen to retain Mercedes’ latest upgrade package on his W15 for this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, despite the difficulties he faced last time out in Austin.

The decision will allow the Brackley-based team to conduct a valuable back-to-back specification comparison between its two car and gather more crucial data on the effectiveness of the new components.

The seven-time world champion’s troubles at the US Grand Prix included an early race spin, which Hamilton initially attributed to potential balance issues caused by the updated parts.

His suspicions were reinforced by teammate George Russell’s near-identical crash in qualifying at the same Turn 19, which resulted in damage to his own new components.

With Russell’s parts now under repair and set to return for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Mercedes had to decide which driver would run the upgrades in Mexico.

The team agreed that Hamilton would stick with the new package, while Russell would revert to the previous specification, allowing for crucial back-to-back data collection.

• Read also: Mercedes explain decision to stick with Hamilton's set-up for US GP

Ahead of this weekend’s round of racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Hamilton had a chance to review his Austin data and to conclude that the track’s bumps, rather than faults with the upgrades, were likely the cause of his early demise on race day.

“We can see in the data that we have three wheeling, so the left wheel starts moving,” he explained. “The car is jacking, basically.

“We can see on the rear, the right height oscillating a lot, so 12 to 15mm difference going into the corner. And you can see a 40 kilometre [per hour] tail wind.

“So you can imagine, there's a small window where the downforce is perfect, and then it gets too high. Then you fall off the peak, so I think it was a combination of all those things.

“If you watch the video, the car is bouncing, the left wheel starts bouncing, and then I think we just lose load, and I think the floor is probably a little bit more sensitive maybe than the previous floor.

“But I've kept it on this weekend because it's a much less bouncy circuit, and it's good because we need to get more data on it.”

Russell was on the same page as his teammate, suggesting that the Austin difficulties stemmed more from an overly aggressive setup than from the new parts themselves.

“Having had a few days to review everything from Austin, I think it's fair to say we were sailing a bit too close to the wind with how we set our car up,” he said.

“We were setting up really aggressive, really close to the ground, and it clearly bit Lewis and I over the course of Saturday and Sunday. But when we could get around the lap, we showed real signs of strong performance.”

Russell is therefore optimistic about this weekend’s split-specification strategy.

“I think this weekend in Mexico is going to be a good opportunity to see across the two cars,” he added.

“Obviously, we've only got one upgrade this weekend and, as I was the one who damaged it last week, Lewis got the choice and elected to use the new one.”

Hamilton will be sitting out Friday’s opening practice session in Mexico, with rookie Kimi Antonelli taking over his car.

The 18-year-old’s brief maiden run onboard Mercedes’ W15 last month at Monza concluded in the barriers, which encouraged Hamilton to offer his successor a few words of wisdom ahead of his return to the track in FP1.

“Kimi is young, and he's learned from his first outing in Monza,” Hamilton said. “We did our briefing together, because obviously he's working with Bono next year, and obviously I'm here to support in any way I can.

“I think what's key is, and as I spoke to him, he doesn't have to set the world alight on the first lap. Just build into it, enjoy it. I told him the track is really, really dirty early on.”

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