Mercedes explain: "That sums up our day"
F1 News
Mercedes left Singapore for Japan in good spirits, but at the Suzuka Circuit, the German racing stable clearly does not have the same pace as a week earlier. Technical director Andrew Shovlin explained.
On Friday in particular, Mercedes' performance was disappointing. Only George Russell managed P5 in the second free practice, but Lewis Hamilton finished outside the top ten both times. On Saturday, the team seemed to have taken a small step.
Mercedes take small step on Saturday
"We made several changes overnight, designed to improve the performance of the car through the first sector. That was where we were particularly weak yesterday," Shovlin explained. "We did find some gains but ultimately, our performance today can mainly be attributed to the corner speed range we see here at Suzuka."
He continued: "Over the course of the year, we've done a good job of adding performance in the lower speed corners. However here, and in particular that first sector, you need a lot of downforce in a certain ride height range. The W14 isn't the strongest car in that area and that helps explain our deficit today."
As of Mercedes' chances in Sunday's race, Shovlin says he is mainly looking at Ferrari. "Our nearest competitors in the championship are Ferrari. We will have an eye on them strategically tomorrow as they line up ahead of us, and hopefully we can be in a race with them," he added. "Our second set of Hard tyres means that we can look at strategies and stints that they possible cannot. Hopefully we can exploit that."