'We were sailing too close to the wind' – Russell not expecting to 'set the world on fire' in Mexico after Austin struggles

Following a rollercoaster of a weekend for Mercedes in Austin, the Silver Arrows are hoping for a more consistent outing and a chance to close the performance gap to their rivals while in Mexico City.

The Brackley outfit went from the high of George Russell narrowly missing out on Sprint pole position by 0.012s to the low of him crashing out in qualifying for the Grand Prix, damaging his newly-upgraded W15.

READ MORE: Wolff insists spin ‘100%’ not Hamilton’s fault as he questions ‘odd’ Russell penalty

It was a similarly fluctuating weekend for his team mate Lewis Hamilton, who had a storming opening lap in the Grand Prix after a poor qualifying before he spun off in a near identical accident to Russell, drawing his race to an early close.

Their upgrades package appeared promising at times, such as during Sprint Qualifying, but simultaneously made the car unpredictable and difficult to drive as Russell labelled it a “beast” after the Grand Prix.

Speaking ahead of Round 20 in Mexico, the Briton said: “Having reviewed everything as a team, I think we were just sailing too close to the wind. We know how aggressively you need to set up for this era of cars, how low to the ground you need to run them, how stiff you need to run them, and I think clearly it caught both myself and Lewis out over the weekend.

“On the flip side, there were definitely glimmers of really strong performance in there. We know we need to be more conservative with the set-up. That may hinder the performance so we’re going into this weekend with an open mind.

READ MORE: Antonelli to drive in second FP1 session in Mexico as he takes over Hamilton's W15

“Lewis will be on the new upgrades, I’ll be on the old package because we don’t have two sets of it, and we’ll see how we get on. I’m not expecting, unfortunately, to set the world on fire this weekend.”

He explained that this weekend is a chance to compare the previous version of the W15 used earlier this season with the fresh upgrades, although it means that they “probably won’t be in the fight”.

Both drivers nevertheless seem determined to bounce back from their tough experience in Austin, as Hamilton summarised that he will “look forward to trying to do a better job and not having a weekend like that again”.

READ MORE: ‘I’ve got to look at all the alternatives’ – Bottas responds to Mercedes reserve driver rumours as he gives update on Sauber future

With the top three teams over 150 points ahead and Aston Martin even further behind in the opposite direction, Mercedes have practically sealed P4 in the constructors’ championship, but are still hoping to iron out the issues that have thus far eluded them.

“The car was unstable last week but it was a very bumpy track,” Hamilton said. “This is not a bumpy track so hopefully on a smoother circuit we won’t have the same problems.

“If we don’t have the problems we had last week then yeah, maybe we can be a little bit closer to the front. It’s all a big if and I’m just hoping for the positive.”