Mercedes asked for “proof” | Lewis Hamilton trails George Russell 1-5 in qualy runs

Lewis Hamilton has beaten George Russell just once in six grand prix qualifying sessions this year.

In Miami this weekend, Hamilton qualified in eighth, one place behind his Mercedes teammate.

Jenson Button, Hamilton’s former teammate, insists that he won’t be impacted by being outperformed on a Saturday again by Russell.

“Will it affect him? I don’t think it will affect him, being just behind his teammate,” Button said on Sky Sports.

“Lewis is in a comfortable place mentally. He knows how good he is. I don’t think he’s got to worry about that.

“And he’s also leaving next year!”

Button said about Hamilton’s qualifying in Miami: “The reason why he was quicker on the mediums is because, on the softs, it looked like he overheated on one corner.

“That carried around the rest of the lap so he lost a massive chunk in two corners.

“I still think, if you can look after the soft tyre, it probably was the better tyre.

“But it’s difficult. You are on edge, the whole time.”

Mercedes asked for 'proof'

Solving the problems that have plagued them since the beginning of 2022 does not seem significantly closer for Mercedes yet.

“What you heard George say is that they went one way, trying to solve it,” Danica Patrick assessed.

“And now they’ve swung the other way.

“So it sounds like there is, maybe, somewhat of a grip onto what’s going on.

“But the proof has to be in the results.

“So far, it’s been at times - late last year, in moments - where they looked very good, and competitive again.

“But here we are, in 2024, and they are struggling.

“Once they can string a few races together, where they are consistently in the top five, it’s a different story. Then, maybe they have figured it out.”

Button added: “They aren’t good enough at the moment but there have been flashes.”

Russell has worryingly pointed out this weekend: “We know that probably some of the changes we’ve made since the end of last year perhaps over compensated with some of the development items we did.

“We have limitations with the car now which is a totally different to what we had this time 12 months ago.”