“Hamilton remains a focal point for many here this weekend , his last home race for Mercedes ”
“Hamilton remains a focal point for many here this weekend , his last home race for Mercedes ”
The last two seasons under the ground-effect regulations have been challenging for Hamilton and Mercedes , but he still managed to find something extra and secure third places here in both 2022 and 2023 .
The 2024 season has again been difficult as the W15 has been disappointing , although second place in the Shanghai sprint race provided a rare glimmer of hope . All is not lost however as developments are still coming through the pipeline , and as McLaren has shown it is possible for teams to make quick progress in the middle of a season .
NEW GENERATION
The current struggles of Mercedes have also made it harder for George Russell to shine at his home race over the past couple of seasons .
Like his illustrious team mate , Russell also first caught the attention of the FORMULA 1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX audience as he worked his way up the ranks . He won the GP3 feature race in 2017 , and was second in both the F2™ feature and sprint races the following year .
He then spent three years carrying the status of everyone ’ s favourite underdog as he served his apprenticeship with Williams , albeit never bettering a humble 12th place in his home event .
His graduation to Mercedes in 2022 promised so much , but alas it was soon clear that the team was struggling heading into the ground-effect era . George has had particularly bad luck here , qualifying eighth in 2022 and then rushing to the aid of Zhou Guanyu after his huge crash off the startline . Alas he wasn ’ t able to take the restart in an otherwise healthy car , and was forced to retire .
He did at least join the ranks of Grand Prix™ winners with a superb victory at Interlagos later that year , but 2023 was again a struggle , and Silverstone brought only a fifth place in a season highlighted by a pair of thirds .
This season has been even harder for Mercedes , especially with McLaren now regularly at the front . However , like Lewis , George is hoping that the latest raft of upgrades will edge the Brackley team towards podium contention .
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