Team order Hamilton-Russell, the explanation of the Mercedes 'swap'

Team play

The difficult moment for Mercedes and for continues Lewis Hamilton in particular at this start of the 2024 season. The seven-time world champion – betrothed to Ferrari from 2025 – finished the Japanese GP in a sad ninth positionbeing beaten by his teammate George Russell for the third time in three GPs completed by both British riders.

On a circuit that last year saw them almost knock each other out during a duel, Hamilton and Russell this time demonstrated a good team spirit. In fact, during the first phase of the race Hamilton let the sister car parade by, which clearly had better pacing. At the end of the GP it was #44 himself who motivated the indication received from the team. In fact, his W15 was damaged during a contact at the start with Charles Leclerc's Ferrari.

Hard tire nightmare

“I took damage when I passed Charles to the outside – Hamilton revealed to Sky Sports F1 – so I had terrible understeer and let George pass”. However, Sir Lewis' Sunday was also heavily influenced by strategy. In fact, the double stint on hard tires – decided by the Mercedes wall after the initial red flag – did not convince him.

“We had to go through two terrible stints on the hard tyres. Today was a challenge. The hard was truly a horrible tire – concluded Hamilton – while the average was better. In hindsight the averages were much better. Maybe we should have used two medium tyres“.