“We’re in the mix”: Russell after a mixed practice in Las Vegas
- Charlotte Mui
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Written by Charlotte Mui
As Formula One returned to Las Vegas for the final American race of the year, expectations were high for Mercedes—and for George Russell in particular, the defending race winner.
Last season, Russell claimed his second win of the year under the lights of the Strip. While his earlier victory in Austria came largely due to the late-race collision between title contenders Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, his Las Vegas win was thanks to the outright pace of the Mercedes package. He crossed the finish line seven seconds ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who himself finished 12 seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. That race marked Mercedes' first 1-2 finish since the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Despite last year's success, Russell was cautious to draw too many conclusions coming into this year: “We’ve changed the car a lot since last year and that’s definitely made it a better car over the course of the season, but maybe it hasn’t made it as competitive as we were here 12 months ago.”
The 2024 Mercedes thrived in Las Vegas’ unusually cold conditions, but the team has since shifted development in a direction that yields broader consistency rather than extreme peaks. Their ability to win in places like Singapore earlier this year speaks to a more versatile package—although that may have come at the expense of the unique strengths they enjoyed in Vegas.
Nevertheless, Russell is confident that Mercedes remains firmly in the mix.
“We’re still there or thereabouts,” he said after Friday’s practice sessions, “but it was close.”
When pressed on whether he felt capable of fighting for victory again, Russell pointed to the progress made throughout the grid: “I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of teams brought some small changes to their car for this weekend, based on how good we were here last year.
"As I said, I wouldn’t want to get ahead of ourselves — we weren’t exactly setting the timing sheets on fire today.”
With Charles Leclerc and Norris topping FP1 and FP2 respectively, the field looks remarkably close, with most top teams looking like they could be in the hunt for victory. As qualifying approaches, the battle for pole looks increasingly likely to come down to the very finest of margins.
