“JOKE OF A TEAM”: Fans accuse Mercedes of bias against Lewis Hamilton amid massive setback to George Russell in Austin

Fans pointed fingers at Mercedes for allegedly not working on Lewis Hamilton's car after a poor qualifying session during the F1 US Grand Prix. The team worked on George Russell's car after his crash during qualifying and he will be starting the race from the pitlane.

Hamilton faced a tough situation at the Circuit of The Americas as he only managed to qualify P18 for the main race. Meanwhile, his teammate George Russell crashed on his final run in Q3. Following this, the team worked on the latter's car for more than two hours before the session's end, which violated Article 40.6 of the F1 regulations. The team was supposed to cover the car under parc ferme rules.

This triggered a pitlane start for Russell. As this news spread on social media, fans were quick to blame the team as it did not work on Hamilton's car. Many felt that the latter's car should have been worked on as well, as he seemingly faced some issues with it during the qualifying session. A fan wrote:

"Ofc they won’t sort Lewis set up out lmfao. JOKE OF A TEAM"

"Strange that they chose not to start Lewis Hamilton from pitlane? But then again, nothing surprises us anymore at Merc when it comes to Lewis," another fan claimed.

"I think Lewis should start from there too and they fix whatever the hell is wrong with the car this weekend," a user suggested.

Some fans also suggested that Mercedes should have given Hamilton a new engine. This would have meant that he would have started the race from the pitlane as well, but given that he will start below P15, it might not have made a huge difference.

"Might as well have given Lewis a new engine," a fan wrote.

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Lewis Hamilton had suggested a pitlane start after "nightmare" car handling in qualifying

The 39-year-old revealed he faced some issues with the car during the Sprint race right after the formation lap. He mentioned that the car had become difficult to drive because of the balancing issues following the suspected suspension problem.

"In the Sprint we had some sort of failure on the formation lap on the front suspension, and I had that throughout the Sprint race," Lewis Hamilton said. "That made the balance really difficult. We did change a couple of things, just in the direction of what we would have done yesterday, but the car was a nightmare today in quali[fying]. Just a very inconsistent balance, and no grip."

Furthermore, he suggested that a pitlane start would be favorable for him after working on the car. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to achieve his target in the race.

"I should probably start in the pitlane, otherwise I won’t be going anywhere from where I am."

Lewis Hamilton finished the Sprint in P6 after starting P7. Meanwhile, his teammate dropped from P2 to P5. Mercedes will be targeting a double points finish in the main race.