Mercedes praise Russell and Hamilton for avoiding 'fight between themselves'

Mercedes have praised Lewis Hamilton and George Russell for not focusing on the "fight between themselves" as the team look to solve their problems.

Hamilton allowed Russell to pass him during the Miami Grand Prix, with the two on different tyre strategies, and this enabled Russell to fight for P4 with Carlos Sainz.

When asked during a team debrief video released after the race about why Hamilton did not put up a fight with his teammate, Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin shed further light on the logic behind the decision.

"We asked Lewis to let George go because they were in different races," Shovlin explained.

"Lewis was on the Hard-Medium strategy and George was on the Medium-Hard. They weren't forecast to finish together but ultimately it gave us a better chance of a result with George if Lewis was happy just to let him go."

Mercedes praise cooperation between Hamilton and Russell

It has been a difficult start to the season for the Silver Arrows, with the squad continuing to face issues with the W14.

Given these challenges, Shovlin admits that the level of cooperation between Hamilton and Russell has been "really useful" for the team.

"Fundamentally we haven’t got the car that we want," Shovlin continued.

"We haven’t got a car at the moment that can challenge for championships, and both drivers are working hard to try and achieve that.

"Whether it's seeing them cooperating on track or cooperating in the office trying to solve problems by trying to share information that helps us to develop, it is really useful that the two of them are focused on getting our car to a level where we can fight for wins, can fight for championships, and not worrying too much now about the fight between themselves."