George Russell put in a dominant performance under the lights at Las Vegas to take his third Grand Prix victory in 2024.
It would have been Russell’s fourth victory without the disqualification at Spa Francorchamps earlier this season, which came a couple of hours after he crossed the line and found to have a plank that had excessive wear.
Prior to their domination in Las Vegas, Mercedes had a difficult second half of the season. The team introduced upgrades to its car at the US Grand Prix, but crashes for Russell and Lewis Hamilton prevented them from gathering any meaningful data.
The two-week break between Sao Paulo and Las Vegas enabled them to regroup, although Mercedes was still at a loss as to why their W15 was so dominant at the street circuit given the cold conditions.
Peter Windsor believes Mercedes is making the same issues as McLaren, which is ultimately what prevented Lando Norris from closing in on Max Verstappen for the Drivers’ Championship.
Mercedes as ‘accident-prone’ as McLaren says Peter Windsor
Although McLaren is currently leading the Constructors’ Championship, their season has been characterised by unforced errors in the title fight with Verstappen.
Norris has made a few mistakes, but the team also found themselves in the position of having two drivers capable of winning races but miles apart on points when it mattered.
As a result, Piastri would often cost Norris points in the championship battle through McLaren’s unwillingness to implement team orders. Windsor believes Russell is suffering from the same at Mercedes.
“The problem is the teams’ they drive for, it’s not Lando’s fault he’s down 37 points from where he should be. It’s McLaren’s fault and it’s the same with George. He’s only going to be as good as the Mercedes team and Mercedes car allows him to be, that could be next year,” Windsor told the Cameron CC podcast.
“He’s got a great car and in terms of the structure of qualifying, how they will run the car, all those things are perfect at every race. But the record shows that Mercedes is about as accident-prone as McLaren when it comes to strategy calls and making a mess of things. I don’t think they will make a big a mess as the driver priority situation as McLaren had this year, because it’s George and Antonelli.”
Max Verstappen faces more difficulty to win fifth title next season
The good thing for Russell and Norris is that the field has converged more in the last 12 months than it has in the last two seasons of the current regulations.
Verstappen won the championship with two rounds left in 2024, but that was in part due to his blistering start to the season in which he won seven of the first 10 races.
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He suffered a 10-race win drought between his wins in Spain and Brazil, with Red Bull seemingly not producing the fastest car in dry conditions.
Next year it might be slightly more difficult as McLaren is now the benchmark team, while Ferrari has also made strides since introducing their Monza upgrade.
