George Russell has revealed that overheating brakes were responsible for the tyre woes that saw him struggle during the closing stages of the Mexico Grand Prix.

Russell profited from Sergio Perez’s first-lap retirement to move up from eighth before a red flag stoppage on Lap 33 due to Kevin Magnussen’s crash also advantaged him.

The Briton utilised running Medium tyres at the restart to propel past Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo into fifth and was then heavily pressuring Carlos Sainz ahead.

However, Russell was unable to overtake the Ferrari, prompting him to be required to back off to cool his brakes which inadvertently saw him lose vital tyre temperature.

The Mercedes driver was powerless to defend against the recovering Lando Norris and only narrowly resisted the threat posed by Daniel Ricciardo to retain sixth at the end.

Reflecting on his race, Russell, who eventually classified 27s behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton in second place, said: “It was just a race dictated by tyres once again. The car felt really strong, right behind Carlos, I just couldn’t quite make the overtake.

“We had to back off as my brakes were overheating, as they were for many drivers. As soon as I backed off, I totally lost all the temperature in my tyres, I could never recover it. It was like driving on ice for the last 15 laps. A really miserable feeling and very lucky to finish P6.”

Russell concedes his issue meant he didn’t enjoy his battle with Norris, who perfectly lined up a move into Turn 4 to execute a switchback move on the exit of Turn 5.

“It’s never fun when you’re on the defending driver on the back foot, again, just really struggled throughout that race with the tyres, it was pretty clear, as soon as I backed off, I lost all the grip and I couldn’t recover,” he explained.

“Not too concerned, because I know the reason for it. It’s been two race weekends in a row for two different reasons, last week for fuel and I lost the tyres because I backed off to manage the fuel, this weekend it was the brakes. That’s at least some clarity.”

Russell managed to marginally keep Ricciardo at bay on the final lap, but the ex-Williams racer admits the Australian would have been past him with one more lap.

Asked if he was expecting the AlphaTauri to overtake him, Russell replied: “No, but for sure one more lap he would have done. He’s had a really great weekend, really happy to see him performing well. Deserves it.”

While Hamilton has maximised the improvements provided by Mercedes’ recent floor upgrade in Austin to score successive second places, Russell has lagged considerably behind his team-mate.

Russell is hoping that the next round in Brazil this weekend won’t be overshadowed by the same problems many drivers encountered with the operating range of the Pirelli tyres.

“We were strong here last year, qualified on the front row. Probably should have had two cars on the podium last year,” Russell acknowledged. “So, it’s definitely performing well, but this weekend has been a weekend about tyres as it has been for everyone.

“Yesterday was a total surprise for many teams, for good or bad. I’m hoping Brazil won’t be that sensitive,” last year’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix winner concluded.

George Russell believes the inconsistency that plagued Mercedes throughout Saturday’s running at the Mexico City Grand Prix was related to the tyres.

Mercedes enjoyed its strongest showing of the season in the United States last time out as Lewis Hamilton came within 2.2s of taking the victory prior to being excluded.

The German marque had been boosted by the addition of a revised floor in Austin, which again placed the team in competitive shape ahead of qualifying in Mexico.

While Hamilton topped the times in Q2, Mercedes were unable to provide a challenge to either Ferrari or Red Bull for pole position on either run in the final segment.

Both cars ended up behind Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri, with Hamilton winding up sixth, 0.288s away from Charles Leclerc’s pole time, with Russell eighth, 0.5s down.

Russell bemoaned Mercedes being caught on the wrong side of optimising the tyres when it counted but accepted that other teams also suffered with the same issue.

“In FP3 we were the quickest at points and showed really strong pace. But now in Q1 we had no grip, off the pace. Q2 the car felt back to normal and we were quick. Went out in Q3 and the same happened again.

“I think for every team [it was a similar story]. Daniel [Ricciardo] was the only driver today who was the most consistent. The Ferraris were off the pace at points and then obviously P1 and P2. Alex [Albon] was quickest at points, should have been in Q3 but wasn’t. It’s frustrating.”

Leclerc credited Ferrari’s unexpected eight-tenth turnaround from Q2 to Q3 to having the tyres prepared with a better warm-up lap.

Russell explains that stepping over the limit of the rubber’s ideal working window resulted in a sudden drop in performance at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

“It’s just how the tyre interacts with the out lap, the temperature dropping,” he expanded. “You’re always trying to find that extra bit of performance but for whatever reason, there seemed to be a sudden drop when you’re a small margin over that limit.

“As I said, everybody either just found that limit and got massive performance, or they were over that limit and had no performance. It is a bit frustrating when it’s like this, but we need to recognise we didn’t get it right.”

Russell asserts that Mercedes’ initial predictions after practice predicted the team would have the race pace to challenge for the podium in Sunday’s 71-lap grand prix.

But the Briton acknowledges that the problems encountered with cooling in Mexico mean its qualifying setback has already compromised its race-day prospects.

“FP3 we thought we were fighting for the front two rows in qualifying and probably had a race car that was quick enough to fight for the podium,” he revealed.

“Starting P8 and P6 for Lewis and I, we are going to have a really challenging day tomorrow. It’s a shame.

“It’s always challenging here, everybody’s fighting brake temperatures, engine temperatures and as soon as you’re trying to overtake and fight a car, you can’t because you’ve reached those limits.

“It’s the nature of the beast and we just need to accept we got it wrong today. It’s really compromised our whole weekend.”

Lewis Hamilton described his Mercedes Formula 1 car as “night and day different compared to last week” after enduring a tough Friday at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Last time out at the United States Grand Prix, Hamilton came to within 2.2s of eclipsing Max Verstappen for the win prior to being disqualified for a technical infringement.

The Briton was buoyed by the improvement of Mercedes’ revised floor in Austin, insisting it was “one of the first upgrades that I’ve actually felt over the last two years.”

Before the on-track running commenced, Hamilton pinpointed Mexico as one of Mercedes’ two “best chances” of taking a victory in the remaining four rounds.

However, he ended up outside the top 10 in the opening practice session before only progressing up to seventh in FP2, 0.338s away from the pace set by Verstappen.

When asked about his Friday, Hamilton ruefully said: “Not that great. Yeah, dodgy – not dodgy, but like just not the greatest. Bit of a struggle in the car today.

“The car is night and day different compared to last week. I don’t really know what really to say. 

“You just never know what you’re going to get with this one. Some days, she’s great, and some days, she’s not. It’s hard to extract the lap.”

But with Mercedes traditionally capable of making a sizeable step overnight, Hamilton is optimistic that the team can turn it around to compete at the sharp end in qualifying.

“I think there is definitely performance there,” he continued. “It’s just trying to extract it, and it’s quite peaky this weekend, maybe just with the aero map or whatever it may be. So we’re going to work on it overnight.

“But definitely it wasn’t a fun day compared to FP1 in Austin. And, yeah, we’re a bit off, but hopefully overnight, we can find something and tomorrow, maybe the car will be nicer to drive.”

Pressed on the potential of the car for the weekend, Hamilton concluded: “[I’m] Not sure. Again, you just never know what to expect with this car. And maybe we’ll make the changes, and we’ll pick that pace up.

“I think there was definitely some performance in there to be closer, and maybe in the top three. 

“But we’ve got to figure out how to make it easier for us to be able to extract that performance. So that’s what we’ll work on tonight.”

Meanwhile, Mercedes team-mate George Russell stepped aside in FP1 to allow the side to complete one of its two rookie practice commitments for the season.

Russell completed top 10 in his only session on Friday but believes that a multitude of factors throughout the day skewed the overall picture of the pecking order.

“It was a bit of a tricky session, there was rain around here and there, we had the prototype Pirelli tyre, and it’s a very tight field out there,” Russell highlighted.

The ex-Williams racer has echoed Hamilton’s thoughts regarding the scope of progress available for Mercedes to make to be in better shape across the rest of the weekend.

“But I think there is potential, I think we’ve got a lot of work to do overnight, it’s very tight,” Russell acknowledged.

“Especially with some unexpected cars, you saw some cars in the top 10 that we weren’t expecting to be there, but we feel like we’ve got a lot to improve. But we also feel like we’ve got the opportunity to do it as well.”

Russell reveals that the two cars were running alternative setups in second practice, which he hopes will pay dividends as the team bids to optimise its W14.

“I think we’ve been probably in the wrong window today,” he admitted. “Lewis and I were running two different setups, and we probably both weren’t in the right window, so that’s given us an indication that probably halfway between both is the right place to be.

“It’s frustrating in the moment to have a sort of negative car, and not have had the best of days. But through those difficult moments you learn probably more than when the car is in a better place. So I guess that’s what practice is all about.”

Expanding on Mercedes’ hopes for Saturday, Russell said: “Of course, we want to be fighting for pole position, Max always is half a step ahead, but I think I think anybody if you get it right can be fighting for the front two rows. We need to make sure that’s us.”

George Russell has labelled the FIA’s quadrupling of maximum fines as “obscene,” stating that some drivers on the grid wouldn’t be able to afford such a penalty.

The FIA quadrupled the previous limit for driver fines, which was set at €250,000, saying that the fines hadn’t been “reviewed nor amended for at least the last twelve years” and they didn’t “reflect the current needs of motorsport.”

However, Russell had various issues not only with the fines but how they were applied and the way the news was communicated to the current crop of Formula 1 drivers, some of whom wouldn’t even be able to afford a penalty as high as €1 million.

Whilst Russell is now a high earner thanks to his drive at Mercedes – one of the biggest teams on the F1 grid – his route into the sport with Williams was a different story.

The Director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association was keen to stress the financial burden drivers in smaller teams put themselves under.

“I think it is pretty ridiculous that a driver could be fined a million euros,” said Russell ahead of the United States Grand Prix.

“In my first year of F1 I was on a five-figure salary and actually lost over six figures that first year paying for trainers, paying for flights, paying for an assistant and that’s probably the case for 25% of the grid,” Russell continued.

“We’re doing what we love so we’re not complaining about that, but if you take a year 1 driver, who probably by the end of the year is losing over 100k because of the investments he has to make and fine him a million, what’s going to happen?”

Another issue Russell was keen to stress was where the money goes once a fine has been issued, stating that he and his peers have requested this information from the FIA, but have yet to hear a response.

“We’ve requested before from the FIA to hear where these fines are going towards, the causes they’re going to, and they need to be reinvested into grassroots, but so far we’ve had no response on where that’s going,” he said.

“So we’d love to get some clarity and transparency and if they truly believe a million euro fine is worthwhile and it’s going to reinvest into the sport then maybe one of the drivers who has been paid a lot is happy to pay that fine, but it seems obscene.

“We just want transparency and understanding.

“I think already the fines are getting out of control and how Verstappen was fined 50k for touching a car, Lewis was fined 50k, it feels like these numbers are being plucked out of the air.

“I don’t know what you have to do to get fined €1,000,000.

“I mean, I don’t know any sport or profession outside of the corporate world.

“What do you do to be fined that amount?

“There’s got to be a lot more transparency just to understand where these fines are going.”

Russell hastened to add that communication between drivers and the FIA has improved technically, but more needs to be done.

“I think at least on the technical side with Nikolas Tombazis, it’s been a huge amount of effort and with Steve Nielsen on improving this but you know, we don’t want to be reading things in the media first and that goes for every topic.”

George Russell insists he is “not concerned” by his struggles in the United States Grand Prix because the Circuit of the Americas has “always been a bogey track for me.”

All weekend, Russell was unable to be on level terms with team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who finished five places and 22s ahead.

Starting fifth, Russell lost out three positions at the start and was only able to recover to seventh, losing out to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez when Mercedes ran long on both stints.

Having admitted earlier this year that his side of the garage had squandered “over 60 points”, Russell believes his Austin weekend encapsulated his entire 2023 campaign.

The Briton suspects that a podium was possible, something only heightened later on when Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified for excessive plank wear.

“Story of the season really, it feels, of missed opportunities,” Russell, who therefore inherited fifth position, lamented.

“On the back foot from the beginning, making a bad start. And then we put a Hard tyre on and we had to manage the fuel, we had to manage the engine a little bit.

“We were about second off the pace and we put the Medium back on and we were the quickest car on track. Closed in on Max [Verstappen] by about 10 seconds and on Lewis by a couple of seconds.

“So standing here, I’m thinking it was definitely another missed opportunity and frustrating we weren’t on the podium.”

Russell has denied that the Sprint format only allocating one practice hour for the drivers to set up their cars contributed to his sizeable performance deficit to Hamilton.

The ex-Williams driver also explains that the bumpy nature of the COTA track makes it an outlier on the F1 calendar, leaving him unperturbed by the troubles he encountered.

“We had that last weekend and it was one of my strongest weekends in Qatar,” he said.

“To be fair, Austin’s always been a bit of a bogey track for me. I’ve always struggled a bit here. It’s probably always been one of his strengths, this circuit.

“But I’m not too concerned because it feels like this is definitely a bit of an outlier with how bumpy it is. Really old tarmac with all the subsidence and cracks around it. So I’m not concerned.”

Instead, Russell attributes his inability to maximise the potential of the car to ending up on the wrong side of “fine margins” at varying points across the race weekend.

“When I look at the pace today, I think that last stint was a really good example of what the potential was,” he highlighted.

“It’s often fine margins. I was off the pace in qualifying and come Q3, the pace was there again. And then on the Medium tyres in Sprint qualifying, I was ahead in SQ1 and SQ2 but then I didn’t have a new tyre in SQ3, so it’s just one of those where we were just on the back foot from the beginning.

“As I said, It just feels like the story of the year. I think last year, I don’t think we ever missed an opportunity probably once in 22 races, whereas this year it feels like 50% of the races we’ve been far from maximising the points.”

Although he was made to rue his own weekend prospects, Russell admits he was “100%” buoyed by the evident progress Mercedes made with its latest floor revision.

Hamilton, who exclaimed on Friday it was the first upgrade he’s felt in two years, utilised the updated W14 to come within 2.2s of usurping Verstappen for the on-track win.

“It’s probably exceeded my expectations this weekend, the upgrade,” Russell expressed.

“It’s definitely exciting, heading into next year, what I think we’ll be capable of achieving. So things are definitely looking in the right step.”

George Russell accepted that the two penalties he was awarded during Sprint Saturday at the United States Grand Prix were “fair”.

Russell had qualified eighth in the Sprint Shootout, but he was demoted three places on the grid after the stewards alleged that he had impeded Charles Leclerc during SQ2.

The Briton immediately recovered the lost ground by gaining a trio of positions on the first lap, eventually gaining one more place on Oscar Piastri to come home seventh.

However, Russell was handed a five-second time penalty mid-race for overtaking Piastri off the track at Turn 15 when he swept around the outside of the McLaren driver.

Despite initially complaining, Russell acknowledged that it was the correct decision both times, with the second penalty dropping him behind Pierre Gasly to eighth.

“Definitely a scrappy day,” he reflected. “In the stewards [room] twice, both were fair penalties, neither were intentional [on my side].”

Russell concedes his pass on Piastri was “optimistic”, adding “He had his right to push me off and I went for it, just thinking if he was being kind I would have got the position.”

Having cleared the struggling McLaren, Russell instantly latched onto the back of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who was the only driver on the grid running the Soft tyre.

Russell attempted a late dive up the inside into Turn 1 on Lap 14, but Sainz rebuffed the attack on the run to the Turn 2 kink and remained ahead until the chequered flag.

With the time stuck behind the Ferrari costing Russell a position to Gasly, Russell rued not being able to clear Sainz to make up the time needed to counteract his penalty.

“It was a shame I couldn’t get past Carlos, he was just too quick in the corners that matter compared to us,” Russell explained.

While Russell could only salvage a solitary point, team-mate Lewis Hamilton converted third on the grid to finish a comfortable second behind race winner Max Verstappen.

Russell’s Sprint preparations were already hampered by having to run a used set of Soft compound in the Shootout after burning through his tyres in Friday’s qualifying.

The ex-Williams racer, who will line up a more encouraging fifth on Sunday, is perplexed by the troubles he has experienced in qualifying at the Circuit of the Americas.

“We knew in qualifying if we did everything right, P6 was probably the maximum,” he acknowledged. “It’s just been a bit of a strange weekend I was really off the pace in Q1 and Q2 and then Q3 things came back to me.

“It’s swings and roundabouts. Qualifying is definitely one of my strengths recently, something to review why it hasn’t been so good this weekend.

“But it’s one weekend, you can’t get it right every time.”

George Russell has been handed a three-place grid penalty for Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix Sprint after being found to have impeded Charles Leclerc during the Shootout.

In preparation for a final flying attempt in SQ1, Russell slowed in the final sector of the circuit before he was caught by the fast approaching Leclerc.

The Ferrari driver, on a flying lap himself, found himself needing to avoid Russell who occupied the racing line at the exit of Turn 19.

After investigating the incident, the stewards have awarded the Mercedes driver a three-place grid drop for this evening’s Sprint race.

“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 63 (George Russell), the driver of Car 16 (Charles Leclerc), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing team radio and in-car video evidence,” the Steward’s report read.

“Car 63 entered the last two corners preparing for his flying lap at the end of SQ1 with Car 16 closing in quickly. Whilst the team did inform the driver about the closing car a few seconds in advance, there was no further information directly before Car 63 entered Turn 19 with Car 16 right behind.

“Car 63 did not move from the racing line in or after Turn 19 and therefore unnecessarily impeded Car 16.

“The Stewards note that irrespective of any information coming from the team, it is the driver’s responsibility to ensure that no other cars are unnecessarily impeded.”

Russell has struggled so far this weekend in comparison to team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time champion will start the Sprint from third on the grid, but a penalty for Russell sees the 25-year-old drop from 8th to 11th.

Leclerc will start Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix Sprint from second on the grid, with lights out set for 17:00 local time.

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has denied that his absence at the previous two rounds contributed to the clashes between its two drivers.

Prior to returning at this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, Wolff had been forced to miss both the Japanese and Qatar Grands Prix after requiring surgery on his knee.

During his time away, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton got extremely close to making contact at Suzuka before the British pair proceeded to collide at Turn 1 in Qatar.

Hamilton would retire from the opening lap touch at the Lusail International Circuit, while Russell rued missing out on a potential victory despite recovering to fourth.

Wolff, who remained engaged in meetings from home, believes there is no direct correlation between his time away and the simmering on-track tensions at Mercedes.

When asked if there was a possible link between the two, Wolff said: “I don’t think so. We’ve laughed about that, too, in the team. But I don’t think it has an effect.

“I think we are racing more in the front now, and I think we have a sniff on how it is looking like to have no car in front of you, with the McLarens and with Max [Verstappen] there.

“So, yeah, in any case, we’ll never find out. I’m back.”

However, Wolff has addressed that the two “unpleasant” incidents have been dealt with internally behind closed doors to best prevent a repeat scenario from materialising.

“There were some, let’s say, unpleasant situations that we have talked about, and lots of points that we left on the table – but there is nobody more aware than the drivers,” he added.

“Sometimes you need these moments to recalibrate and recondition and avoid similar situations in the future.

“But they’re racing drivers; they compete hard. Your first competitor is your team-mate, and therefore, I see it with a relative relaxed stance. And I’m back.”

Mercedes’ prospects this weekend in Austin have been bolstered by the addition of a revised floor to its W14 – the German outfit’s “last big update for the 2023 season.

Hamilton was pleased with the progress made with its latest part, documenting that it’s “one of the first upgrades that I’ve felt over the last two years.”

The seven-time World Champion eventually wound up third in qualifying on Friday evening, just over a tenth shy of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who bagged pole position.

Meanwhile, George Russell was perplexed by struggles that left him “off the pace”, ending up relieved to escape an early Q2 exit on his way to clocking the fifth fastest time.

George Russell claims that he was relieved to wound up fifth for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix after admitting that being “off the pace” left him fearing a Q2 exit.

Having eclipsed Lewis Hamilton in four of the last five qualifying sessions, Russell consistently lagged behind his Mercedes team-mate throughout Friday in Austin.

Hamilton, a five-time winner at the Circuit of the Americas, ended up third on the grid for Sunday’s grand prix, two places and two-tenths clear of Russell in the sister car.

While Russell echoed Hamilton’s view that Mercedes’ latest floor revision provided a positive step, the 25-year-old asserts that he struggled during the first day of running.

Russell contends that he was “pretty pleased” to even be in contention in the final top 10 shootout, after being concerned that he would even struggle to reach Q3.

“For me, it’s been a really challenging day,” Russell reflected. “I’ve been off the pace, I don’t really know why.

“It’s been feeling quite good, the update, we can feel the improvements. But it’s been a bit of a strange day for me, so I’m actually pretty pleased with P5, because at some points it was looking likely that we may not even have got through to Q3.”

Despite the Sprint format ensuring that minimal changes can be made to his W14, Russell is optimistic that he can rebound ahead of the remainder of the weekend.

“I’ll take those positives, try and work on it tonight, always the Saturday Sprint qualis tend to go better for us than they do on the Friday evenings, bar Qatar, and we’ll go from there,” he added.

Russell believes lining up fifth on Sunday provides opportunities, even though he suspects an extra position was possible without an error at Turn 1 on his best run.

“To be honest, I’ll take it on my shoulders of just being off the pace today and struggling to understand why,” he explained.

“But Q3 was a reasonable lap, I made a bit of a mistake at Turn 1, probably cost me one more position on the grid, but P5 is a great place to start on Sunday when it was looking likely at points we could have been much further down the order; I’m pretty satisfied.”

Lewis Hamilton says he is relishing the prospect of trialling Mercedes’ “last big update” for the 2023 Formula 1 season during this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

Mercedes’ prospects at the Circuit of the Americas will be boosted by the addition of a revised floor to its W14 car, as the team looks to protect its 30-point buffer to Ferrari.

However, Mercedes Technical Director James Allison underlined that the upgrade will only deliver a “small” lap-time improvement, with the primary focus on ensuring the side is heading down the “right track” regarding next year’s W15 package.

Hamilton, who previously declared that Mercedes needs “the greatest six months of development” the team has ever had to challenge in 2024, agrees that next year remains the German marque’s main priority.

“Well, it’s been a huge amount of work back at the factory,” Hamilton acknowledged.

“This is our last big update, or the biggest of the large updates through the season, and I’m really excited to see how it feels.

“All the amazing people back at the factory have worked incredibly hard during the whole season and hopefully this really kind of tips the needle a little bit and helps us in the right direction of where we want to pursue next year.

“But yeah, I don’t know exactly all the different parts of the circuit that I’ll feel it. But hopefully it’s a global improvement and hopefully puts us a little bit closer to the guys ahead.”

Last time out in Qatar, Mercedes squandered an opportunity to seize its first victory of the year when Hamilton and team-mate George Russell collided at Turn 1 on the first lap.

Hamilton immediately exited the race, while Russell was eventually able to recover to fourth, beating the sole remaining Ferrari to preserve Mercedes’ hold on second place.

Asked to reflect on his first retirement of the campaign, Hamilton said: “Move forwards. Yeah, just excited to get… You know, the great thing about our sport is that there’s always another day to get back on the horse and just been pushing, moving forwards and nothing I can do about the past.

“There’s definitely things we can learn from, I can learn from, which I have, and just now focused on getting back in and excited for these next races that come, especially the back-to-backs.”

Despite encountering a sluggish start to last season, Mercedes rebounded as the year progressed to usurp Ferrari as Red Bull’s closest challenger in the latter stages.

That culminated with the Brackley-based squad sealing a one-two at the penultimate race in Brazil as Russell beat Hamilton home to secure his maiden Formula 1 victory.

But Russell has downplayed Mercedes’ chances of replicating that late-season charge, insisting that the team is taking each of the remaining five rounds as they come.

“We’re not really thinking about it like that [comparing to last year], to be honest,” he argued.

“We just focus on race by race, maximizing the points. Of course, McLaren have made huge progress, which was unforeseen, but for us, we’re just trying to maximize.”