Mercedes offers explanation over apparent no-show at Lewis Hamilton's podium during 2023 F1 Singapore GP

Mercedes technical director James Allison recently clarified that several team members were present to celebrate Lewis Hamilton's podium at the 2023 F1 Singapore GP.

In almost every live broadcast, several McLaren and Ferrari fans and team members were visible before and during the podium celebration. However, for some reason, Mercedes members were nowhere to be seen.

Speaking to the media after the race, Allison explained that many of Hamilton's team members were present during the podium celebrations. However, it felt like they were not present since none of the cameras picked them up during the live broadcast.

“I am going to have to disagree a little bit with the premise of the question. Of course the team was there at the podium to celebrate with Lewis. As many of the team as it was practical to get to the podium were there because we enjoy it. We love standing there and clapping and cheering for our driver,” he said.

Allison went on to state how Mercedes have always loved cheering their drivers whenever they bag a podium finish, and that Lewis Hamilton's P3 finish at Singapore was no different.

He also mentioned that a few team members were not present since they were in the garage, ready to receive George Russell and his crashed car.

“Necessarily a certain amount of the team had to stay in the garage during that event because we needed to receive George [Russell]’s car back from the marshals who were bringing it back into the pit lane. But the rest of the team were all down at the podium and cheering along with everyone else, but the cameras do not show everything and the big story there was of course the first win this year for a non-Red Bull team,” he said.

“There was a very significant number of all teams down there at the podium ceremony, we were a big part of it but not maybe where the camera lighted during the podium celebrations,” Allison added.

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Mercedes team boss feels Ferrari's pace is not track-dependent

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff recently talked about how Ferrari dominated on two very different tracks - Monza and Marina Bay - proving that the Italian team's performance is not track-dependent anymore.

When Wolff was asked by Sportskeeda about Ferrari's performance, he replied:

“They are starting to be a really, I would say, sustainable front runner. We're talking pole positions. They ran at the front in Monza for a long time and were very strong, but we weren't that far away either. So clearly here in Singapore that has been a great track for them last year and they have become very strong on two very different tracks - Monza and Singapore.”

Ferrari is currently third in the constructors' championship with 265 points, while Mercedes is second with 289 points.