Might the Mercedes comeback be upon us?
There’s not less than some renewed optimism across the Silver Arrows forward of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, after George Russell and Lewis Hamilton each certified within the prime ten for Sunday’s Grand Prix. With Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc dealing with a ten-place grid penalty, Russell will roll off the road in third, with Hamilton in seventh.
Whereas not the drastic enchancment many Mercedes followers had been hoping for, after a troublesome season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, there appears to be extra optimism across the staff following Saturday’s qualifying session at Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
“We have now exceeded the potential and our personal expectations to be forward of an Aston Martin and a Ferrari. It’s a strong job; we put in a variety of work in a single day,” exclaimed Russell in a press release to the media, together with SBNation, after qualifying. “The staff again at Brackley had been working arduous within the simulator and we did a variety of work trackside this morning to try to get extra out of the bundle. We all know we aren’t within the struggle for pole simply but, however you need to maximise what you’ve bought, and we actually did that in the present day.”
Actually, Leclerc’s penalty — coupled with a retirement from Max Verstappen, who was primed for a begin on the prime of the grid — aided Mercedes this present day. Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin was fast to level that out following the qualifying runs. Nevertheless the drivers, particularly Russell, made the many of the session. “It’s been a tough weekend to get the automobile in the proper place and I don’t suppose George may have gotten any extra out of it along with his laps within the closing session,” famous Shovlin. “We’ve benefited from Max’s points and Charles’ penalty to finish up third on the grid, however George nonetheless needed to get forward of various key vehicles that had been all fairly fast.”
For his half, Hamilton was extra muted, as he admitted that he struggled with the W14 throughout qualifying. Nonetheless, there are indicators that the enhancements are coming collectively for the staff. “I struggled just a little bit in the present day, however we simply have to maintain attempting. It doesn’t matter what modifications we’ve been making, we’ve been struggling to extract the velocity, and I simply don’t really feel correctly related to the automobile in the meanwhile,” stated Hamilton on Saturday night time. “That’s one thing we are going to work on to enhance the boldness within the subsequent races. George did an awesome job in the present day although and he wasn’t that far off among the vehicles on the entrance, so we simply have to maintain pushing. It wasn’t the best of days however there are enhancements for the staff.”
Looking forward to Sunday, the staff concedes that so much can change as soon as all 20 vehicles are on the observe. With the excessive speeds drivers attain at Jeddah Corniche Circuit, coupled with how drivers are nonetheless adjusting to the modifications on the observe — particularly the tightening at Turns 22 and 23 — something can occur.
“The race right here usually has just a few incidents so how effectively you do is usually a operate of whether or not they fall on the proper instances. Just a few locations separate our vehicles so it offers us a chance to separate them on methods so we are able to cowl the bases,” stated Shovlin, looking forward to the Grand Prix. “Hopefully we’ll be a bit kinder on the tyres than we had been in Bahrain; we’ve tried to work on the setup to attain that and we’ll discover out tomorrow if we’ve made progress.”
“I believe pace-wise tomorrow we’re with the Aston Martins and the Ferraris; not less than that’s per the lengthy runs yesterday, so we must always be capable to mess around within the race,” added Staff Principal Toto Wolff.
Of the group, Russell appeared probably the most optimistic.
“We have now a struggle on our arms tomorrow, almost definitely with the Aston Martins and the Ferraris. We will probably be pushing arduous to get on the rostrum and seeing what we are able to do,” stated the Mercedes driver. “This staff has increased requirements and expectations for themselves than simply ending within the prime three, however we will probably be giving the whole lot we’ve bought to be standing there on Sunday.”
