Why did Hamilton struggle with Mercedes W15 in 2024?

That does not mean that Russell was fighting for poles and wins every weekend, but he was managing to extract more performance from the Mercedes W15 than the seven-time F1 champion.

And that was not down to Hamilton suddenly forgetting how to drive an F1 car after years of rewriting the F1 record books with Mercedes, whom he joined back in 2013, going on to win six of his seven titles.

Reflecting on the issues that faced Hamilton with Mercedes' 2024 F1 car, the team's head of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin, said: "The car hasn't been quick enough, and that's been the thing that we've been trying to solve.

"The car hasn't been easy to get into a nice balance window, and particularly once you get there, keeping it there has been a challenge.

"Beyond all of that, I think you know Lewis has struggled on a single lap. His race pace has been there throughout the weekend. But it's just with a close grid, you often start a few places behind your teammate, and then you're held up and you can't show what you can do.

"But the read on Lewis's race pace has been very good. He showed in Las Vegas that if he has a car that works the way he wants, he can fight right back to the front. And we very much saw the old Lewis," Shovlin added.

Hamilton, as a reminder, drove a fantastic Las Vegas Grand Prix, finishing second, having started from tenth on the grid while Russell won from pole.

Shovlin went on detailing some of the issues Hamilton faced in qualifying; he said: "The issue really for him has just been when you are trying to extract that last tenth or two.

"It's been difficult in terms of trying to avoid brake locking, trying to avoid snaps on exit. It's just those issues," he pointed out. "But the way the team looks at that is that we needed to give Lewis a car more like the one we had in Vegas, where it does suit his style, and he can do his best work with it."

And while there was a theory floating around that certain drivers who have historically been good under braking but struggled with the current ground effect cars, Hamilton being one in addition to Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen, Shovlin insisted that was not the case when it came to the Briton who is joining Ferrari in 2025.

He continued: "I think these days, a lot of it is keeping heat out of the rear tyres. If you approach a corner in a way that that means that they're hot, or if you're having to turn the car on the throttle, then you will struggle with that.

"[Braking style] may be a factor in amongst it all, but I don't really know enough about Magnussen and Ricciardo to know whether that was their issue.

"But certainly keeping the heat out of the rear tyres on a single lap is the most important thing at about half to two thirds of the circuits."

But why did Russell perform better than Hamilton in qualifying in the W15? Shovlin revealed nothing stood out in the data.

He said: "I mean, not really in the style or approach, because Lewis is wise enough to know that if something is working for George, he can adapt his driving to go in that direction.

"There are things that you can see that ultimately, when they really start pushing, then that's when you start to get the snaps of oversteer on exit.

"And that, on occasion, is an area that Lewis might suffer more from than George. But, as I said, the focus for our year has been, how do we get the car in a way that Lewis needs to allow him to drive it on the limit and not suffer those problems," the Mercedes engineer concluded.