Mercedes are short on spare parts, with Lewis Hamilton having come up with a selfless solution.
A selfless Lewis Hamilton has offered to give his car parts to team-mate George Russell with Mercedes scratching around for spares.
Both Silver Arrows drivers endured a Saturday to forget in Texas, with Hamilton starting Sunday’s race in 19th, while Russell crashed in Q3 and will start from sixth.
Russell’s misery was compounded when it became clear some of the new Mercedes upgrades had been damaged in the crash – alterations that were fitted for the first time this weekend.
In an attempt to salvage at least one positive result this weekend, Hamilton has offered to sacrifice parts on his Mercedes car for his better-placed team-mate.
Because it’s a sprint weekend, the rules would allow this to happen, but Russell has admitted his team will attempt to try and fix the problem alone.
Commenting after qualification, Russell said: “Right now, the concern is about the bits. We will have to revert on the upgrades.
A selfless Lewis Hamilton has offered to give his car parts to team-mate George Russell with Mercedes scratching around for spares.
Both Silver Arrows drivers endured a Saturday to forget in Texas, with Hamilton starting Sunday’s race in 19th, while Russell crashed in Q3 and will start from sixth.
Russell’s misery was compounded when it became clear some of the new Mercedes upgrades had been damaged in the crash – alterations that were fitted for the first time this weekend.
In an attempt to salvage at least one positive result this weekend, Hamilton has offered to sacrifice parts on his Mercedes car for his better-placed team-mate.
Lewis Hamilton unleashes fury as Lando Norris sent worrying message
Fernando Alonso starts feud with Liam Lawson as Red Bull ace branded an ‘idiot’
Because it’s a sprint weekend, the rules would allow this to happen, but Russell has admitted his team will attempt to try and fix the problem alone.
Commenting after qualification, Russell said: “Right now, the concern is about the bits. We will have to revert on the upgrades.
“Lewis has kindly offered his ones, but we’re not going to swap.
So I don’t know what’s going to be happening now, but that’s the biggest concern
He will appear to have a brand new set of parts for the United States GP, however, what Hamilton actually said indicates that he has already thrown the towel on a points finish.
This was the first time Hamilton had been knocked out in the first round of qualification for a United States GP in what the seven time world champion called a ‘nightmare’.
On his horror show in qualifying, Hamilton said: In the Sprint we had some sort of failure from the formation lap on the front suspension.”
I had that throughout the Sprint race.” And that made the balance really difficult.
We altered a couple of things which kind of forced us to move towards what we would have done the day before yesterday. Qualifying was a real disaster for the car.
“I would like to start in the pit lane, otherwise I might not go anywhere from here.”
Racing begins in Texas at 10pm BST; Lando Norris qualified for property during Saturday’s qualifying session.
The McLaren star had just the edge over title rival Max Verstappen who will start second and will need only a win to make it four consecutive Drivers’ Championship.