Mercedes draw painful conclusion in Abu Dhabi: 'Found that tricky'
F1 News
After both Mercedes drivers could finish inside the Top 5 in FP1, only Lewis Hamilton could stay there in FP2 at the Abu Dhabi GP. Andrew Shovlin, the team's trackside engineering director commented on where things stand for Mercedes this weekend, and where focus will be for the Germans in FP3.
"We've had strong single lap performance at the last two races but today we've found the Soft tyre quite tricky. McLaren were clearly very fast today and they will be hard to beat this weekend, but if you look at Lewis' lap then you can see how with a few improvements he could put himself just behind," Shovlin reacted, the team report.
"George has a bit more to find but we were experimenting with some new setup directions and the cars were quite different for the low fuel work. We can unpick that work on the simulator overnight, but I'd expect we'll find a good direction through which George can improve for tomorrow," he continued.
Shovlin on Mercedes' plans for FP3 at the Yas Marina Circuit
Shovlin then discusses plans for the final free practice of the season. "The long run picture was better; Lewis a bit ahead of George and like the single lap, we can see some areas that we ought to be able to improve that should put us closer to the front. We'll use FP3 to continue the work on low fuel and hope that tomorrow we'll close the day a bit nearer the top of the timing screen," he concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Estéban den Toom
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