Mercedes and customers McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams impacted by Global CrowdStrike outage

The Mercedes F1 team have been impacted by the Global CrowdStrike outage ahead of the FP1 session at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix. The German team has been using the security services company ever since the 2019 season, with the branding appearing on their F1 cars.

The outage has impacted airlines, banks and media since the morning of July 19 due to a defective update provided by CrowdStrike. As per Race Fans, a Mercedes spokesperson has confirmed that the team is affected by the outage and is fixing problems manually on each computer before the start of the FP1 session at 1:30 p.m. local time.

The spokesperson said:

“We are working closely with our partners at CrowdStrike to mitigate any impact."

Not just the German manufacturer, but its engine customers McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams F1 have also been impacted by the outage. The computers are an integral part of the sport as the large amounts of data collected help the team strategize while communicating with the factory in real-time.

However, it has not been confirmed if the aforementioned teams will sort out the issues before FP1 and run their cars without collecting any valuable data from the session. Apart from Mercedes and its customer teams, Red Bull and Sauber have also been reportedly affected by the issue.

---

Mercedes drivers give a confident outlook for their chances in Budapest

Mercedes driver George Russell stated that everyone on the team was 'super motivated' and had not envisioned such an upturn in performance and results as they have had since bringing the upgrades to Monaco.

As per Sky Sports, the Brit said:

"If you told us at the start of the year we'd be fighting for three wins in a row, we wouldn't have believed it. We have led the last four races since the upgrades, which is an incredible turnaround for us and everyone is super motivated."

Lewis Hamilton too gave a confident outlook ahead of the Hungarian GP:

"We are united as a team and we are going to try and make sure we finish this season on a high. If we can lift the team up the ladder of constructors, if we can progress - we are not too far off the drivers up ahead of us - then that will be great. It's really exciting for all of us."

The former world champions are arguably the most in-form team alongside McLaren at the moment given their performance in the last four races. They have even managed to outscore the dominant Red Bull since Canada and won the last two races in Austria and Britain.