George Russell says “that’s the beast we’re dealing with” amid Mercedes headache

George Russell and Mercedes reacted with frustration at their weekend to forget in Texas.

Russell crashed in qualifying for the F1 United States Grand Prix, wrecking the upgraded parts on his W15.

Mercedes had no spares, so he reverted to a prior spec and started from the pitlane. Russell rescued a P6 finish.

But Lewis Hamilton, who qualified 19th, spun out of the grand prix on Lap 3.

“Definitely pleased with [Sunday], no doubt,” Russell said.

“Starting from the pitlane, not really sure what we were going to have during the race, and especially going back to a floor that we ran in Canada 10 races ago, more I guess.

“To end up P6 ahead of a Red Bull as well, that was really great. Obviously you always question what could have been, but we’re dealing with a difficult car at the moment.

“Lewis never really makes any mistakes and you saw [on Sunday] he had the exact same thing as what happened to me [a day earlier]. That’s the beast we’re dealing with right now.

“I’m looking forward to things being a little bit calmer or consistent because you just don’t know what you’re going to get every time you go out. We’re all on this emotional rollercoaster.

“Clearly the car has the potential to be fighting right at the front, but when we are in that position we don’t really know why we are.

“When we’re not, we also don’t really know why we’re not. It’s just a real challenge to unpick it and understand it.”

Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director, said: "Given that we had one car starting at the back and one in the pit lane, we had realistic expectations as to what could be achieved.

“Lewis made a good start and was quickly up to P12. Unfortunately, that didn't last long as he lost the rear in turn 19. We're still investigating what caused that, but in any case, his race was over.

"George was making steady progress through the field in his first stint, but it still took him until the halfway point to get any clear air to judge pace.

“Encouragingly, the car was hanging on to its tyres well and that was allowing us to extend. P6 was the best he could have achieved, and he drove a good race to get there.

"As a team we have underachieved across the weekend and are under no illusions that we need to do better.

“The update kit has shown some promise, but we've not had a single clean session, and we'll leave here not knowing what we could have done if we'd started near the front with a car in our latest aero specification.

“We will look to answer that question next weekend in Mexico."

Team principal Toto Wolff added: "It has been a tough weekend overall here in Austin.

“We see that there is pace in the car, as was shown on Friday and with George in the race, but we are still dealing with its inconsistency.

“That is not something unique to us though. Different teams have come into and out of form throughout the season, but it is something we will be working hard to improve over the final five races of the season.

"The positive was that George was quick throughout and produced a good fightback from his pit lane start. The team in the garage worked hard to get the car ready for the race, with a large workload to get through as we had to revert on specification.

“George drove a strong race and was particularly quick on the Hard compound. That enabled us to extend his first stint and ultimately claim P6 in the final few laps.

“Unfortunately, it was a disappointing day for Lewis. He wasn’t pushing at all but a gust of wind, combined with the dirty air from the car ahead, and he lost the car.

“We need to look at that, and what happened with George [on Saturday], to understand why the car reacted like that.

“Lewis Hamilton is not a driver that loses a car like that on lap two of a race, so there is something there that we need to understand."