Lewis Hamilton delivered an encouraging performance at the Miami Grand Prix, but it remains to be seen whether Mercedes have made real progress or whether the performance was just another fallacy.
After a painful – and pointless – sprint, with both Hamilton and teammate George Russell failing to make it to the final part of sprint qualifying, the weekend threatened to sink even deeper for the Silver Arrows with their worst start ever Season.
However, after starting eighth on the grid behind Russell, Hamilton put in a strong performance in the full-length race on Sunday, putting Red Bull driver Sergio Perez under heavy pressure for most of the race and eventually finishing sixth.
Although it wasn’t the strongest afternoon for Red Bull, as McLaren’s Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen to take his first F1 win, it was a positive sign that Hamilton was able to stay in touch with Perez – and the Ferraris up front.
“Honestly, a really good day. I’m really happy,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 after the race. “The team did a great job and I’m very happy with the set-up we finally got. We finally got this sorted out, or at least in a better time frame.”
“In order to move forward and have a few good duels with a few drivers, there was a close duel with Hülkenberg! The crazy thing is that I just felt the calmest at that moment, I don’t know why.”
“Then holding onto one of the Red Bulls at the end, it felt great to see Ferrari and Red Bull in the distance.”
Where did Hamilton’s improvement come from?
After designing a car for the third year in a row that simply couldn’t keep up with Red Bull’s leading model, Mercedes had spent the first few weeks of the season making extreme changes to the W15’s setup in the hopes of gaining more pace achieve.
After the disappointment in China two weeks earlier, the team arrived in Miami with the intention of taking a less speculative approach to tuning to ensure more solid performance, while also introducing an improvement to the vehicle’s underbody.
This seemed to have gone wrong in the sprint, but with only a 60-minute training session scheduled before the start of the competition, there is a risk for each team that the setup isn’t quite right.
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Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are forced to retire from the Miami Grand Prix in second qualifying
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said after the race that maintaining a more consistent approach was a key factor in Hamilton’s relative success on Sunday.
“I was not at all happy with the sprint race on Friday, and then we did solid and very structured work for the Grand Prix qualifying,” said Wolff.
“Accepting that this is the base level at the moment and then just applying it to the race. Sixth and eighth place are nothing to be proud of, but it is a step in the right direction.”
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Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz reflects on all the key talking points from the Miami Grand Prix, where Lando Norris took his first win in Formula 1
Why was Russell having problems?
While Hamilton was thrilled with his performance, the shine, at least from a team perspective, was somewhat diminished by Russell’s inability to match his teammate’s pace.
The younger Briton has largely overtaken the seven-time world champion so far this season, but was flattered this time to finish just two places behind Hamilton in eighth.
While Hamilton pressured Perez, Russell struggled to challenge Yuki Tsunoda in an RB.
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George Russell reflects on Adrian Newey’s departure from Red Bull while also discussing the possibility of both Max Verstappen and Newey moving to Mercedes
“It was a really tough day for us,” Russell told Sky Sports F1. “We had no pace at all. We need to check the car because something didn’t feel quite right and we lost a lot of pace compared to what we thought.”
“I just had no pace at all. It was much worse than expected. Our race pace has been pretty strong this year, but I wasn’t far compared to Lewis, so we’ll have to see what happened and go from there.”
Wolff’s explanation for the discrepancy between his drivers was that Hamilton completed his second – and longer – stint on the higher-performance medium tire that Russell started with, before switching to a hard tire that did not work well on the W15.
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Highlights from the Miami Grand Prix, where Lando Norris became the 21st driver from the UK to win a Formula 1 race
Wolff is optimistic and sees improvements on the horizon
Despite Hamilton’s optimism, the apparent specificity of the conditions required to produce a strong driver brings back memories of several moments under the sport’s current regulations when Mercedes looked strong for a session or section of a race but then failed to maintain it could .
Wolff’s post-race comments suggested that major performance fluctuations from track to track are inevitable, at least until Mercedes has a more extensive upgrade package in place.
“I think the car doesn’t start anymore, that’s good,” said Wolff. “Things have been really bad here the last two years.
“The car is very strong at high speed. The handling is slightly better, although not on the same level as the others, but the car simply doesn’t turn at low speed. You don’t want to have that either good at low speed or good at high speed, you need both, and so it points us in the right direction.
“It was a painful learning curve and still not satisfactory, but the situation is more encouraging now.”
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Mercedes driver George Russell says his race pace surprised him, while Lewis Hamilton was much more encouraged with his new setup at the Miami GP
While McLaren unveiled a seemingly groundbreaking upgrade at Miami and Ferrari is expected to unveil significant new parts next time at Imola, Wolff seemed to suggest that Mercedes’ new features are still a few races away.
““I think we know what we’re going to do,” the Austrian added. “In terms of what we put into the car, you can’t really rush it because you have to develop to the point where you say, ‘Now it’s good to go into production.’
“And once those parts arrive, they have to be sorted, so that’s a matter of many weeks.”
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On the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, Natalie Pinkham reflects on the growth and development of Lando Norris since his early years in the sport
Ultimately, there was too much false premonition for Mercedes to be confident that Hamilton’s momentum could be built further in Miami, but it will be fascinating to watch it live at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Sky Sports F1 from May 17 to 19 to see whether a more conservative approach to furnishings will pay off.
Instead of being discouraged by Mercedes customer McLaren’s victory in Miami, Wolff sees Norris’ victory as proof that his team can still turn things around before Formula 1 rules change again in 2026.
“They have taken a huge step since last summer and won fair and square, and with a Mercedes engine,” said Wolff. “And it’s so important for all of us to see that if you make the right upgrades and do the right work, you can make these steps. So I only see positive things.”
Formula 1 heads to Europe as Imola returns to the calendar after last year’s canceled race. Watch the Emilia Romagna GP from May 17th to 19th. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month membership – no contract, cancel anytime
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