Mark Hughes on Mercedes’ pace in Miami

In Friday practice in Miami, George Russell showed consistently good results, being fastest on one fast lap and also finishing in the top three on long series laps. Mark Hughes, an expert on the UK edition of The Race, discusses whether this could be seen as signs of Mercedes returning to its former positions.

Even if we consider that Max Verstappen didn’t do a single lap in the second practice due to hydraulic problems on his RB18 (this happened after he didn’t do many laps in the first session due to gearbox overheating), such results from Mercedes say something. But about what?

Does this mean that a slew of updated aerodynamics – most notably the signature front wing endplates, a more efficient rear wing and an improved rear secondary wing – have worked and suddenly turned the troubled W13 into a machine capable of high speeds?

Or does this mean that on the Miami track, which doesn’t require as much downforce, the imperfections of this chassis are less pronounced than on previous tracks? Or did the problems that prevented the riders from warming the tires simply disappear in the heat?

Or maybe all these factors worked together?

Certainly, judging by the comments made by Russell and Lewis Hamilton (he was 4th in the second practice session and lost a few tenths to George), they are by no means convinced that new products have enabled them to solve the car’s problems.

“To be honest, I think the driving experience is the same,” Lewis said after practice. “We definitely have balance issues and we haven’t solved them. I still have to fight the machine. George looked better, but we worked with him with other institutions…”

In fact, Russell honestly admitted that he didn’t understand how they managed to add something to Miami.

On Friday, the team experimented more than usual with ride height and other settings, but on this track, the build-up of the car at high speeds was not that noticeable. At least with settings designed for less downforce, the speed threshold at which destabilization starts gets higher.

In any case, it seems that these settings allowed Mercedes to achieve a more efficient chassis, and the W13’s speed was on par with the Ferrari, albeit somewhat inferior to the Red Bull.

Incidentally, Lando Norris, who showed the 6th result yesterday, is not surprised at the pace at which Mercedes cars were able to perform on the new circuit in Miami: “I am not surprised. Everyone expects that they will have terrible problems just because their car is prone to build up to some degree.

But she can handle slow corners well. Probably, judging by the GPS data, the Mercedes car is one of the best cars in such areas all season. So I’m not surprised at all. But their results make us work even harder and try to stay ahead of them again.”