Lewis Hamilton makes upgrade offer to George Russell after US GP qualifying accident

With no updated spare parts available to him, George Russell has revealed that Lewis Hamilton offered his teammate his version of the team’s upgrades after he crashed in qualifying.

Mercedes has brought a significant upgrade package to Austin this weekend in what appears to be the last major set of updates of the season as they look to finish 2024 on a high.

George Russell reveals ‘kind offer’ from Lewis Hamilton after qualifying accident

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

Hamilton is heading into his final six races as a Mercedes driver and, with the 2025 regulations largely being a continuation of what is in place now, any updates brought to the current cars could likely influence the development of next season’s drivers.

With Russell crashing at the high-speed Turn 19 in Q3 and Hamilton having been knocked out in Q1 on Saturday, Russell revealed that the seven-time world champion offered his teammate his version of the updated Mercedes W15 to race on Sunday. in Austin, although this was not an offer that would be accepted, with the cars entering in parc fermé conditions.

Reporting that he was safe and well after his high-speed impact on Saturday, Russell told media including PlanetF1.com: “I mean, right now, the concern is with the (updated) bits. So, you know, we’ll have to roll back the updates.

“Lewis has kindly offered his, but we won’t. So I don’t know what’s going to happen now, but that’s the biggest concern.”

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Russell’s engineers will have faced lengthy repairs ahead of the United States Grand Prix, while Hamilton is expected to start from 18th place after Liam Lawson’s 60-place grid penalty comes into effect for power unit changes.

With the race looking like a difficult proposition from a team perspective, Mercedes team boss and CEO Toto Wolff admitted he faces an “uphill battle” when the lights go out at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday.

“A disappointing and frustrating day,” said Wolff when reflecting on Saturday’s action.

“After a strong Friday, we expected a good showing and it quickly became clear in the Sprint that we didn’t have the pace of our closest competitors, falling back to finish a distant P5 and P6.

“Furthermore, the handling balance that both drivers had enjoyed the previous day was missing and they were struggling with overheating tires – Lewis on the rear axle, George on the front.

“We made some setup changes to address this before qualifying, but we continued to struggle and were unable to achieve the same level of performance we saw on Friday, with Lewis finishing 19th and George 6th but unable to complete his final flight. lap.

“Tomorrow’s race will therefore be an uphill battle: there is a big repair job ahead for George after his crash in Q3. With Lewis starting 19th, it will be a case of damage limitation in the race: fighting for significant points will be difficult and we need things to fall in our favor to do so.”

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