James Allison privately said something desperate about Mercedes after seeing George Russell lap

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George Russell led the charge for Mercedes at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix last weekend. Russell qualified on the front row and then finished fourth after an ill-timed red flag.

In the dry, Mercedes once again looked like F1’s fourth-fastest team. Russell started and finished sixth in the Sprint, accurately predicting that he’d find himself isolated between the frontrunners and midfield.

But after the downpour on Saturday afternoon, Russell came alive. He was Lando Norris’ nearest challenger in the rescheduled qualifying while teammate Lewis Hamilton found no grip whatsoever and suffered a Q1 exit.

Russell would then take the lead from Norris into the first corner and hold it for the first 29 laps. Against his advice, Mercedes called him into the pits for a fresh set of intermediates.

Conditions were worsening at the time, and it felt inevitable that there would be a safety car or full stoppage. Within a couple of laps, there was both.

That gave the cars in front a free tyre change, and he wasn’t able to pass Pierre Gasly for the final podium place. Still, Norris felt Russell deserved to win, rather than the slightly fortunate Max Verstappen.

James Allison said George Russell’s pace at Sao Paulo Grand Prix was a ‘bad sign’

Russell made what should have been an encouraging start to the weekend. He was second-fastest in the one and only practice session – 0.181s adrift of Norris.

But Auto Motor und Sport’s Michael Schmidt spoke to technical director James Allison after the session, and received a worried verdict. On the evidence of the previous races, he suspected that Mercedes couldn’t sustain their speed.

On multiple occasions this season, the Silver Arrows have looked like pole and victory contenders on a Friday before regressing into obscurity. Had it been a conventional weekend, it would likely have been a similar story at Interlagos.

“Very funny Friday,” Schmidt said on the Formel Schmidt podcast. “Who was first and second? I think it was Norris fastest and Russell second, so Mercedes got going again like the fire brigade.

“I spoke briefly with James Allison, the technical director, who completely desperately says that’s actually a bad sign. There are no points [for a Friday] and we just can’t manage to keep this speed from Friday morning in the race.”

Karun Chandhok spotted something ‘awful’ on Lewis Hamilton’s onboard camera in Brazil

Ordinarily, Hamilton would shine in wet conditions. The general rule is that individual talent comes to the fore on a slippery track, where a driver is more reliant on their instincts than their car performance.

But Hamilton was a non-factor in this race. Following his aforementioned Q1 exit, he had to scrap throughout the race just to score one point.

One Red Bull simulator driver said the Mercedes car is a ‘fool’ after watching onboard footage from driver 44. Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok came to a similar conclusion.

Chandhok said Hamilton’s onboard looked ‘awful’ because he had ‘no grip’ and ‘no confidence’. Russell has commendably driven around the many problems with the W15, while his seven-time world champion teammate has grown increasingly dejected.