Every Formula One fan knows that it has not been a great few years for Team Mercedes following on from Lewis Hamilton’s almost total domination of racing for a number of years as he took himself to a total of seven World Championship titles (including four successive wins on the trot). but with news that Hamilton is now off for pastures new and Ferrari at the end of the current race year, team mate George Russell is managing to give himself quite a good 2024 so far.
With numerous car problems in the last few campaigns for Mercedes, 26 year old Russell earned the team their first podium position of what has become yet another difficult 2024 race year for them at the Canadian Grand Prix, but in acknowledging two major mistakes of his own throughout the race, he left Montreal citing that it was clearly ‘a missed opportunity’ to achieve even more and live F1 betting would certainly have favoured him at the beginning.
In pointing out his two mistakes, many commentators actually identified three that ultimately conspired to prevent him from fighting for what would have been his first true win of the year, and Mercedes’ first since way back in 2022 at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Despite that obvious disappointment though, Russell’s performance and finish not only shows how he is improving as a driver, but it was one of the bigger positives that Mercedes could take for quite a while.
Russell’s showing was admirable, in taking their first pole position since Hungary last year (and his own since the same race 12 months prior to that), he led the line well for the opening 20 laps of the race, despite facing significant pressure from runaway leader and incumbent, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. With Verstappen eventually taking the race, and McLaren’s Lando Norris finishing second, they both admitted that Russell’s car was the quickest in Canada, but that will only frustrate Russell more given he dropped to third, however he knew that being disappointed at third did really show how well he had done.
He had to concede he would certainly have taken that finish ahead of the weekend beginning.
As the team look forward to a much changed future with the departure of Hamilton, Russell is doing his own career no harm at all with his continued development, but from Mercedes’ point of view with the car clearly being quicker, they will be slowly hoping that a corner has been turned and that this is now something that they can significantly build on themselves in the months that remain in the year, so that they can have a better optimism and eye on success for the 2025 battles that lie ahead.
As preparations for the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya continue, people will continue to pour over some of the Canadian claims that have been made and whether or not they are technically true, and also what it might mean for the rest of the 2024 calendar, but the safe bet remains that the championship will again go to Verstappen and Red Bull, as they remain light years ahead of their nearest challengers, even if Russell secured the more recent headlines.
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