Russell admits Mercedes upgrade package still needs fixing ahead of US Grand Prix

George Russell acknowledged on Thursday at the Circuit of the Americas that Mercedes is still working to understand why its highly anticipated upgrade package, debuted at the Malaysian Grand Prix, has underperformed — with the United States Grand Prix now serving as the next opportunity to unlock its potential.

Speaking during media day in Austin, Russell was candid about the team’s aerodynamic struggles since introducing the new parts. “We obviously brought that big upgrade in Malaysia. It didn’t perform quite as we hoped,” he told reporters. Rather than abandoning the upgrade, Mercedes used the Singapore Grand Prix as a controlled test environment, running back-to-back configurations to build a clearer picture of the car’s behaviour.

“We then got really good info in Singapore doing the back-to-back, and we’re confident the upgrade is the way to go, but it just needs some more time to fine-tune the set-up to get the most out of it,” Russell explained.

The timing is far from ideal for Mercedes. Max Verstappen has won back-to-back races in Malaysia and Singapore, giving Red Bull significant momentum in the closing stretch of the season, while McLaren and Ferrari continue to apply pressure in the Constructors’ Championship. With teammate Kimi Antonelli in contention at the sharp end of the title fight, the pressure on the engineering side of the garage to resolve the setup issues is considerable.

Mercedes’ task is complicated by the compressed nature of the calendar at this stage of the season. The team must find the correct setup window for the new package quickly if Russell is to have machinery capable of competing for race wins in the final rounds. The conclusion of the Sprint weekend format in Singapore means the US Grand Prix follows a conventional race schedule, giving the team a full set of practice sessions to continue their investigation before qualifying.