Mercedes leap to defence of Lewis Hamilton as error highlighted in Red Bull Miami battle

Lewis Hamilton laps the Miami circuit in the Mercedes W15

Questioned on whether a “lock-up” had cost Lewis Hamilton the chance to pass Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in Miami, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin argues the pace was just not there.

A P6 finish does not often leave Hamilton feeling happy, though the story was different in Miami, due to his ability to take the fight to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Perez in the Red Bull, rather than watch them disappear up the road.

Mercedes lacked the pace for Lewis Hamilton overtake

While unable to overtake Perez – who ultimately finished two seconds ahead in P4 – Hamilton was able to keep the pressure on the Red Bull driver after swapping his hard tyres for mediums, with Perez also on the medium compound.

Our data analysis from the Miami Grand Prix revealed that Hamilton’s mean lap time on the medium was 1:31.7 over the 25-lap stint. Perez, who swapped his hards for mediums under the Safety Car having stopped eight laps previously, also ran that compound to the end for a 25-lap stint and his mean time was also 1:31.7.

However, therein lies the problem as a lack of tyre life or pace advantage meant Hamilton was unable to find a way past Perez, Shovlin defending their seven-time World Champion after being asked in Mercedes’ post-Miami GP debrief whether Hamilton could have passed Perez “if he had not locked up?”

“The issue was that we looked to be a little bit quicker than Sergio in that final stint, we could stay with him,” Shovlin began in response.

“Lewis was having to push the tyres very hard to stay there, but Red Bull were running a smaller rear wing than us, they can do that and they have still got good pace in the corners and that meant that it was very, very hard to actually get the gains on the straights that we would have needed to make the pass.

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“It was encouraging that we were able to pressure him and race him, but we are not quick enough to overtake them when you are on the same compound and the same age tyre, we just have not got the pace to do that.”

After introducing a first raft of upgrades in Miami – which included a revised floor on the W15 – Mercedes are planning to introduce further updates at Imola, as they continue their search for a first podium of the F1 2024 campaign.