George Russell rejects Lewis Hamilton’s lifeline after catastrophic US Grand Prix crash

Mercedes driver George Russell has revealed that his teammate Lewis Hamilton offered to exchange upgrade packages following Russell’s high-speed crash during qualifying for the United States Grand Prix, which caused significant damage to his car. W15 F1 car.

Hamilton, on the other hand, faced a surprising Q1 exit during Saturday’s session and so offered to exchange his undamaged parts. The seven-time world champion revealed that his Mercedes suffered from technical problems, notably a front suspension failure that appeared during the formation lap of the Sprint race and hampered his performance during the remainder of the event.

Hamilton suspected that the problem had been transferred to qualifying, damaging the car’s balance. This led to a shock exit in Q1, where he finished 18th behind his former teammate Valtteri Bottas, who overtook him in the Sauber C44 F1 car. This could be his worst start to the 2024 season yet.

Russell spun at Turn 19 during the final moments of Q3, resulting in significant damage to the right front section of his W15 upgrades. In a gesture of support, Hamilton offered his updates to Russell, but the latter declined, opting to revert to previous specifications. This decision added uncertainty to Russell’s United States Grand Prix as he prepared to start from sixth place on the grid. Addressing the situation after qualifying, Russell told the media:

“Right now, the concern is with the bits.

“We will have to revert the updates, and Lewis has kindly offered his, but we will not change.

“So I don’t know what’s going to happen, but that’s the biggest concern and we don’t have the answers.

“We continue in this position and how the car is interacting with the tires, the temperature, with small changes in the wind, but it has been the story of the season.

“With updates old or new, we are either there or we are half a second, six tenths away.

“All season long, when the car was in the ideal position, fighting for poles and wins – like (in sprint qualifying), we were both fighting for pole, and in qualifying, we were both almost eliminated in Q1.

“I really pushed on that last lap, trying to find a performance that wasn’t there and I paid the price.

“I’m disappointed in myself, because everyone worked so hard to bring the updates, and this is in the trash.”