Mercedes searching for answers to Miami slump

Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott has conceded the team is searching for answers as to why it suddenly fell off the front-running pace on Saturday in Miami.

After a difficult start to the season for the Silver Arrows that has seen the team settle for a string of top-five finishes for George Russell and comeback drives from both drivers after difficult qualifying sessions, the former Williams driver topped FP2 last time out.

Yet Russell and Lewis Hamilton struggled for pace when it came to final practice and qualifying and although the seven-time champion reached Q3, his team-mate managed to start only 12th.

On why the team struggled so much between the two days, Elliott revealed: “That's a really good question and it's a question that we are trying to answer.

"I think if you were to look at Friday's running it was probably the most competitive we've been at any point through the season so far.

"Between Friday and Saturday we will have made some changes and actually those changes were fairly minor, but there were also changes in conditions and we need to go through all of that data, extract as much understanding as we can from that and use that to move forward over the next couple of races.”

F1 had "more difficult races in past" - Elliott

The heat in Miami marked a physical challenge for the drivers to contend with across 57 laps.

But ranking just how difficult it was in the sweltering heat and humidity, Elliott said “I believe George made a comment in the press that he had found that pretty hard.

"Obviously he was battling through the field in a race that was both hot and humid and those two conditions of hot and humid mean you sweat a lot in the car and the drivers actually lose a considerable amount of weight during the race just in that sort of sweat that’s lost to the atmosphere.

"I am sure they have done more difficult races in the past. Malaysia in the past has been a really difficult race for both heat and humidity, but Miami was probably up there with those sort of races from the past.”

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