Mercedes breached parc ferme rules at the United States Grand Prix, resulting in George Russell starting from the pitlane.
After crashing out of Q3 at Austin on Saturday, Russell severely damaged his W15 car by hitting the barriers at Turn 19.
The impact destroyed a new upgrade package brought by Mercedes for this race, leaving the team with a dilemma due to the lack of spare parts for the new developments.
Although Lewis Hamilton offered his upgrades to Russell, allowing him to start from sixth on the grid, the team deemed this impractical due to the amount of work involved for both cars.
As a result, Russell had to revert to the previous car specification up until the Singapore GP, causing Mercedes to work overnight to make the changes without facing automatic penalties.
George Russell, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Due to the difficulty of reverting to the previous car specification within parc ferme time limits, Mercedes had to continue working overnight, breaching the rules and requiring Russell to start from the pitlane.
Mercedes faces a challenging race in the USA GP with both drivers starting far down the order, as Hamilton will now start 17th after Russell’s pitlane start and RB’s Liam Lawson’s engine change penalty.
