F1 News
Uncertainty for Russell: 'We hope to get that done before Brazilian GP'
- Ludo van Denderen
George Russell crashed twice in the first two weeks of the current triple-header in Formula 1, leaving team boss Toto Wolff warning about budget cap troubles. Over the past few days, hard work has been done at the factory in Britain to repair the damaged parts, but it is not yet 100 per cent certain that they will succeed in fully repairing the upgrade that Mercedes had just put on Russell's car.
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' Trackside Engineering Director, says ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix: "We are certainly hoping to achieve that. There is a lot of work going on here at the factory. That floor came back after Austin. It will be on its way to Brazil any moment now and we are hoping to get that to the track on Thursday ready to go onto his car. All the plans are to achieve that, and we are confident that we will be able to deliver."
With four race weekends to go, there is little left to win or lose for Mercedes in the constructors' championship. A fourth place finish seems very likely for Mercedes. "It is certainly a good opportunity for us to do a bit more experimentation in the race weekends, but the key thing for us is making sure we have done the important bits of learning before the 2025 season. We are not bringing any more major updates to the car. It might be that we have some test items, some small bits of bodywork that we are looking at but again this would be very much in the context of learning for the future," he added.
Mercedes sees McLaren and Ferrari as favourites
Shovlin certainly does not see his team as favourites at the Interlagos circuit. "Recently we have seen McLaren and Ferrari particularly good in the slow corners. Brazil has a lot of that in sector two. We think they are going to be very difficult opposition but for us I would say a podium would be a great result."
This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton