F1 News: George Russell Rejects Lewis Hamilton's Lifeline After Catastrophic Crash At United States Grand Prix

Saajan Jogia | Oct 20, 2024

Oracle Red Bull Racing driver George Russell heads to the pits for practice laps at the Formula 1 Pirelli United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. / Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Mercedes driver George Russell revealed that his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, offered to swap upgrade packages after Russell's high-speed crash during the United States Grand Prix qualifying, which caused significant damage to his W15 F1 car.

Hamilton, on the other hand, faced a surprising Q1 elimination during the session on Saturday, and thus, he offered to trade his undamaged parts. The seven-time world champion revealed that his Mercedes suffered from technical issues, notably a front suspension failure that emerged during the formation lap of the Sprint race and plagued his performance for the remainder of the event.

Hamilton suspected the issue had carried over into qualifying, disrupting the car's balance. This led to a surprising Q1 elimination, where he finished P18, trailing behind his former teammate Valtteri Bottas, who out-qualified him in the Sauber C44 F1 car. This could be his worst start of the 2024 season thus far.

Russell spun out at Turn 19 during the final moments of Q3, resulting in significant damage to the front-right section of his W15's upgrades. In a gesture of support, Hamilton offered his upgrades to Russell, but the latter declined, opting instead to revert to the previous spec. This decision added uncertainty to Russell's United States Grand Prix, as he prepared to start from sixth on the grid. Addressing the situation after qualifying, Russell told the media:

"Right now, the concern is about the bits.

"We will have to revert on the upgrades, and Lewis has kindly offered his ones, but we are not going to swap.

"So I don't know what is going to be happening, but that is the biggest concern and we don't have the answers.

"We keep finding ourselves in this position and how the car is interacting with the tyres, the temperature, to small changes in the wind, but it has been the story of the season. 

"With old upgrades or new upgrades, either we are there or we're half a second, six-tenths off.

"All season, when the car has been in the sweet spot, fighting for poles and wins - like [in sprint qualifying], we were both fighting for pole, and in qualifying, we were both almost out in Q1.

"I really pushed on that last lap, ultimately trying to find performance that wasn't there and paid the price.

"I am just disappointed with myself, because everyone has worked so hard to bring the upgrades, and that's in the bin."