Report Saturday: Mercedes GP – Rear Wing Issues

At the end of the first day, the Mercedes team was optimistic for the rest of the weekend. The W02 appeared to be more competitive than in Australia, and the drivers were hoping for a good qualifying session.

Unfortunately, issues with the movable rear wing will have halted Rosberg and Schumacher in their stride. They will start 9th and 11th, respectively, in a race that promises to be difficult for the German team.

Nico Rosberg – 9th:

The team made good progress here and I had a good balance in Q2. Unfortunately, I lost that feeling in Q3, which combined with the issues with the rear wing, means we weren’t able to extract the maximum from the car, which is frustrating.

The car is better than what we have shown so far, but we don’t exactly know why we aren’t more competitive at the moment. We need to solve today’s problems and see what can help us improve in the race tomorrow.

Michael Schumacher – 11th:

«We had issues with the rear wing today and unfortunately, it compromised my last lap in Q2. The car became difficult to drive, which is really a shame because it was working well in the previous stints.

The performance was better with the wing so we had to use it. We made a step forward, thanks to the whole team for the work done. Now, we need to focus on tomorrow’s race because we believe anything can happen.

Ross Brawn – Team Principal:

«We had a difficult qualifying session today. We are still struggling with the car’s consistency and did not give Nico and Michael the best chance to show what we can do. »

Sometimes the car works well and the performance is there, but too often there are things that don’t function correctly. We are clearly not where we want to be but we continue to work to improve our competitiveness.

«It will be a difficult race tomorrow unless the weather or other events create opportunities. »