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LAS VEGAS – George Russell stormed through the Mercedes catering building on his way to the media desk, wearing a white puffer jacket. The sight was not entirely unusual given the cold temperatures in Las Vegas and the demands of the media at the end of a Grand Prix. But what the Brit said in full joy may have raised a few eyebrows.

“Vegas, baby!”

For the first time since Brazil 2022, Mercedes secured a 1-2 finish, with Russell taking his second win of the season. That’s the team’s 60th 1-2 finish, only the second team to accomplish the feat (the other being Ferrari). All eyes were on Max Verstappen after he won his fourth world title, but for Mercedes this moment is worth celebrating – and one we must learn from.

It was a fairly easy race, even with two retirements (Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon) and a few hiccups in the pit lane. Winning the race came down to proper tire management, in a weekend where grain formation was discussed during numerous media sessions. But how did Mercedes manage to beat the three best teams? It’s a bit of a mystery.

“It’s been a dream all weekend,” Russell said during his post-race interview on track. “I don’t know how we got so fast, but I’m just riding this wave right now.”

The Las Vegas Grand Prix marked Russell’s third pole position of the season, and he didn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to turning that into a win in 2024. The other two times he was P1, at the Canadian GP and the British GP: “It’s always been chaos,” he said.

Russell had a clean start in Las Vegas and kept the lead even when Charles Leclerc tried to throw his Ferrari past the Mercedes in the opening laps. He managed to stop the Ferrari driver and drove ahead.

When you get into a fight, whether you’re defending or attacking, there’s the concern of whether you’re overusing the straps. However, Mercedes didn’t seem to have that problem, regardless of tire compound.

Hamilton and Russell were the class of the field all weekend in Las Vegas. (Clive Mason/Getty Images)

“We could push, push whenever we wanted, and there was no graining, neither on the medium nor on the hard,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. “Look, Charles, a few times defending, the pressure on George, but he defended great. I don’t know what the outcome would have been, but the driving was exceptional.”

Both Russell and Lewis Hamilton started on the medium tires and completed a two-stop race on the hard compound just a few laps apart. Russell pitted on lap 12 and he thinks that first stint won the race. He said: “Stint one was exceptional, and I knew from that moment on that the only way we were likely to lose the win is if I stretched the tires and opened them up. So it was just a matter of controlling my pace, making the right turns and bringing it home.”

From there, Russell drove a controlled race and managed to close the gap, finishing seven seconds ahead of Hamilton. The seven-time world champion, meanwhile, started the race tenth and worked his way through the field, with the middle stint being particularly strong. He undercut the Ferrari duo and overtook Verstappen for second place.

“I had a great time. When you make progress and move forward, it’s always a great feeling,” said Hamilton. “It felt a lot like my old days (karting) at Rye House, starting at the back and going all the way, so it was great.”

Mercedes was barely touchable all weekend. The million dollar question is why.

Russell said the team’s problems are well known, such as how to lift the car higher when Formula 1 races on bumpy tracks. But that puts them “in a downforce window where we don’t have it. And it’s not like we suddenly forget how to adjust the car. It’s just certain tracks that require us to put the car in a window where it doesn’t like to be.”

However, the Las Vegas Strip Circuit is different. “On tracks like this where it’s relatively smooth,” Russell continued, “we can get the car quite low and quite stiff, with little or no bumps around the track, we’re flying.”

Qatar is similar, with a fairly smooth surface. And Russell believes the team has “a good chance” next weekend. Ahead of the final three races of the season, he wanted to field an older engine from his pool for Las Vegas so he had a newer engine for Qatar. In retrospect, he said, “I’m kind of glad we didn’t do that now.”

However, Hamilton didn’t sound nearly as confident as his teammate, although he was still optimistic to some extent.

“I don’t think anyone in the team knows why we were so fast this weekend. And everyone will be happy with it. But I think in the warmer conditions we often have a harder time,” he said. “Maybe Qatar won’t be too bad, because it is a bit cooler there. And the track is very slippery. So maybe we’re not that bad on that track. I think we were good there last year. Abu Dhabi, maybe less so. But we’ll see.”

Hamilton and Russell shared a podium as teammates for perhaps the last time. (Marc Sanchez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The 2024 season was a rollercoaster for Mercedes, fluctuating between poor results (by his standards) and highs such as during the summer and in Las Vegas. Silverstone and Spa are two other circuits where it found the right place with its car and won as a result. But the Silver Arrows need to better understand how to consistently achieve that goal, balance temperatures and stay within the optimal tire window.

This is bigger than the last two races of the year. It’s about 2025, when Mercedes hopes to return to the battle for victories against the top three.

“This is a very important result because you know you have locations over the weekend and then normally you can see where everything was here, which we weren’t very good at in that session, but here, every session, we were ahead ,” said Wolff.

“So there’s a lot of good data that allows us to say, at least we know where the sweet spot is, this is where we need to be, and then we try to figure out how we can achieve that goal more often.”

Top photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images