Blossom dreams: Mercedes, here with George Russell in the W15, dreams of a solo tour like she once did. Image: Imago
While world champion Max Verstappen puts everything together for his third victory in 2024, the Silver Arrows team is only thinking about getting to the podium. The mystery of one’s own weakness continues.
In an effort to provide a little lightness in difficult sporting times, there is a pretty shelf in the Mercedes pavilion in the Suzuka paddock containing a few flowers, a model of a historic silver racing car and also a few books. The selection of decorative volumes is not only interesting, it also wonderfully illustrates the plight of the German-British team in Formula 1: side by side there is the standard work “The Perfect Car” by the former Ferrari designer John Barnard and the encyclopedia “The NASA archives.
The theoretical basis for the rocket science to finally make the Silver Arrow, which has been so superior for years, capable of winning again, is there. In driving practice, however, it wasn’t just Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing who ran away early at the Japanese Grand Prix; for the fourth time this season, neither George Russell nor Lewis Hamilton managed to get close to the podium. Seventh and ninth, just as they started.