Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in fresh disagreement as Toto Wolff involved
Toto Wolff said Lewis Hamilton had a different opinion to George Russell about the new upgrades to their cars.
Mercedes have brought a new floor with them to the United States Grand Prix. Wolff said in the build-up to this weekend's action that it will be the last major development to the W14 this season and technical director James Allison said he had high hopes for the impact it could have on the car.
Friday practice was encouraging, with both drivers in the top six on the timesheets and within half-a-second of Max Verstappen. Both outqualified the Dutchman later in the day, but the fact Verstappen had his best lap time deleted was a major factor in that.
Hamilton will start Sunday's race third on the grid, with Russell two places further back. Speaking after the session, team principal Wolff told reporters one of his drivers was much happier with the upgrades than the other.
"The lap time was competitive that Lewis was able to to post, but it's not like that the car is is suddenly super fast," said the Austrian. "In certain areas he feels more comfortable and George, on the other side, wasn't satisfied with how the car was going for him."
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Hamilton said himself he was thrilled with his car. He beamed as he told reporters: "This is an improvement. This is one of the first upgrades that I've actually felt over the last two years. So that's a positive and we just need two or three times of this step to put us in super competitive mode."
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin gave a positive verdict of the upgrade after qualifying. "Going through the data, the upgraded floor looks to be giving us what we hoped for, and the drivers are feeling a benefit. That is encouraging," he said.
"In terms of the on track running, Lewis has had a relatively straightforward day. We thought at times that we had a chance of pole position and in the end, it was pretty close. Unfortunately, he couldn't squeeze any more out of it on his final effort but still took a strong P3."
But Russell was less positive after what he described as "a really challenging day". He said: "I've been off the pace, and I've not been able to identify why. I can definitely feel the improvements we've made with the update, but it's been a strange Friday. I'll put it on my shoulders though as the driver – I just need to work on finding out why I've not been as quick as I think we can be.
"I'm pretty pleased with P5 as at some points it looked like we may not have even made it through to Q3. My final lap was a reasonable effort. I made a small mistake at turn one which probably cost me one more position on the grid."
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