Mercedes thinks that its rollercoaster United States Grand Prix form was triggered by a set-up that ‘flirted’ with the ground too much. The German manufacturer was left scratching its head at the end of the Austin weekend as it struggled to understand why it had been so competitive in sprint qualifying, with both cars in contention for pole, and then struggled so much the rest of the weekend. Adding to its woes were identical spins that George Russell and Lewis Hamilton suffered at Turn 19, one in qualifying and one in the race, which fuelled questions over whether an upgrade fitted to the W15 had trigged some unexpected problems.
It has left team boss Toto Wolff convinced that its pre-summer form – when it won three races out of four – is now long gone and the squad is once again adrift of McLaren , Ferrari and Red Bull. “We're back to underdog status,” said Wolff. “We are not back to the pre-summer situation.
It's not about coming into the weekend and thinking we're going to win this. “It's more going into the weekend and thinking at the moment we're the fourth team on the road.” While the team is still working on understanding its car better, technical chief James Allison thinks that there is a simple explanation for what happened in Austin – and it revolves more around its set-up choices than anything else.
Speaking in Mercedes’ regular post-race debrief about what had gone wrong between Friday and the rest of the weekend, he said: “That is the mil.