F1 News: Hamilton may not use Austin-spec floor in Mexico

(GMM) Bosses at two Formula 1 teams were scratching their respective heads in the few days between the US and the Mexico grands prix.

While Mercedes’ upgrade package showed impressive speed at times in Austin, both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton also suffered significant crashes.

“Lewis apologized, but he wasn’t even driving at the limit,” said team boss Toto Wolff. “For me it was 100 percent not his fault.”

Russell wads up his Mercedes in qualifying for the 2024 USGP

He admitted engineers are completely puzzled as to why the silver car was “by far the fastest on Friday”, but then suffered such a balance shift and loss of pace for the remainder of the weekend.

Wolff suspects that the new aerodynamics are simply not yet in “harmony” with the chassis – which is why Mercedes is not going to revert to an older specification for Mexico.

Russell, though, will have to use an older floor this weekend because of a lack of spare parts following his crash.

“The new floor will only be back from the factory in Brazil,” said Wolff. “We have the full package for Lewis, but I’m not sure whether he wants to use it again.”

It’s a similar story for Aston Martin, except that the significant new package in Austin did not result in even a sporadic turn of extra pace.

Team boss Mike Krack said: “We have to look at what we brought, evaluate the changes we made over the weekend, and make the right decisions for Mexico.

“But I wouldn’t write them (the new parts) off so soon,” he told the Spanish newspaper AS.

Aston Martin famously enjoyed a string of podium finishes early in 2023 for Fernando Alonso, but progress has been difficult ever since.

Krack admits it’s crucial the team understands what has happened because the cars for 2025 will all be similar up and down the pitlane for the last season of the current regulations cycle.

“We have to understand what we have done in 2022, 2023 and 2024,” he said. “Sometimes you want to go in one direction, but you have to go back a little first. It has happened to many teams with these ground effect cars.”