The 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was not one where Mercedes looked like podium contenders, but fortune smiled upon them late in the race. The crash between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez on Lap 50, while they battled for third place, opened the door for George Russell to snatch a podium finish. Russell, running fifth at the time, capitalized on the incident, finishing third as the race ended under virtual safety car conditions.
It was a weekend of struggle for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton, who qualified seventh, started from the pitlane after taking a new power unit and making setup changes that breached parc fermé conditions. Throughout the race, Hamilton wrestled with tire temperature issues and ultimately finished ninth, only benefiting from the late-race chaos that took out Sainz and Perez.
Russell Reflects on a “Strange” Race
George Russell described the race as puzzling, particularly due to Mercedes’ inconsistent performance across tire compounds. He struggled with the Medium tires in the first stint, finding himself over a second off the pace, but came alive on the Hard tires later in the race, lapping significantly faster than the leaders in the final 20 laps.
“It was a really strange race today,” Russell said in Mercedes’ race report. “On the Medium tyre, I was finding it hard to control the rear tyre temperatures. But once we switched to the Hard tyre, the car felt brilliant, and I was much quicker. It’s frustrating not knowing why the car’s performance changed so much, but we were fortunate to get a podium in the end.”
Russell acknowledged that the podium was a bit of luck after the Sainz-Perez incident but expressed relief that both drivers were unharmed. “We were having a quiet run to P5, but we’ll take the podium as a reward for the team’s hard work this weekend,” he concluded.
Hamilton’s Struggles Continue
Lewis Hamilton’s weekend was even tougher. After a promising Friday, setup changes made heading into Saturday backfired, leaving him grappling with tire issues throughout the race. Hamilton also struggled with overtaking, despite Baku’s long straights, due to difficulty following cars through the twisty second sector.
“Today was a difficult race,” Hamilton admitted. “We made changes that didn’t work out, and I had to live with that throughout the race. I was stuck in traffic for a lot of the afternoon, but credit to the young guys like Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman, who were very impressive.”
Hamilton took some solace in Russell’s podium and the data Mercedes collected ahead of future races. “George’s podium is a positive, and we’ve got upgrades coming before the end of the year. Hopefully, we can close the gap to the front soon,” Hamilton added.
Wolff: A Podium, But Not Fooled by Pace
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff also reflected on the race with cautious optimism. “We will take the positive that we were able to get one car on the podium,” Wolff said. “But we are not fooling ourselves. On pace, we were P5.”
Wolff noted that Russell’s ability to manage the tires in the second half of the race was encouraging, but admitted Hamilton faced a tougher time in traffic. With the team now turning its focus to Singapore, Wolff emphasized the importance of analyzing the weekend’s performance to improve the car balance.
“Singapore is another tough circuit to predict,” Wolff concluded. “We’ll dig through the data from this weekend and aim for a stronger performance there.”
In the end, Mercedes’ Baku weekend was a mix of frustration and fortune, but they’ll hope to build on the lessons learned as they prepare for the challenging Singapore Grand Prix.
