Mercedes seeks inspiration from Verstappen’s qualifying lap

To succeed, sometimes you have to draw inspiration from the best. That’s exactly what Mercedes is aiming to do after a frustrating weekend in Japan. On the podium in the first two rounds (two third places for Russell in Australia and China), the German team couldn’t do better than a fifth position at the finish on the Suzuka circuit. This was mainly due to more difficult qualifying caused by a strategic error.

It was the technical director of the team, James Allison, who explained this to the microphone of *RaceFans*. The Brit regrets the approach adopted by the team during Q3, a decisive moment where the full performance of the car is revealed. While Red Bull and its driver Verstappen decided to attack hard from the first sector, even if it meant having slightly overheated tires at the end of the lap, the Brackley team, on the contrary, asked its driver George Russell not to push too hard on his out lap to prevent the tires from overheating at the end of the lap. However, this strategy did not prove to be successful since with still cold tires as he started his lap, the former Williams driver lost a lot in the first sector compared to the Dutchman who already had his tires in the right temperature window from the start of the lap.

Mercedes trapped by the new surface at Suzuka

A choice that did not prove to be rewarding, Russell only took the fifth fastest time, while Verstappen started on pole. For James Allison, this mistake is partly due to the changes made this season to the Suzuka circuit, which the team failed to exploit. “They redid half of the circuit,” he explained in a video released by Mercedes. “In fact, the area that received the most new asphalt is the first sector, this very fast and demanding turn one and two, then the climb into the Esses. The main challenge with new asphalt is that it is much harder to get the tires to heat up so they reach a temperature that allows them to grip this surface.”

A suboptimal tire warming at Mercedes

« In general, it’s necessary to attack the last part of the out lap strongly so that the tires are ready in the first sector. But this can take its toll later in the lap. » Mercedes had advised Russell against using this method, believing it would overheat the tires too quickly, which would affect the end of his timed lap. A decision the German team regrets. « For our last run — and it was clearly not the right thing to do — we advised him to start the lap with slightly cooler tires. He felt it wasn’t the right strategy, that he should attack instead. As a result, the tires weren’t ready in the first sector, and we lost a lot of time, making the rest of the lap almost pointless. Even in the second half of the lap, we couldn’t take advantage because the overall lap time was not competitive. »

« If you look at the cars that performed — and particularly the lap that Max put in to secure an impressive pole — he really attacked the end of his out lap, putting the tires in the right window to go all out in the first sector, and then tried to limit the damage in the rest of the lap. We should have done the same. And if we had, we would certainly have had a better position on the grid. » Fortunately for Toto Wolff’s team, they have the opportunity to make up for it this weekend in Bahrain, a circuit where tire degradation will be even more significant and will inevitably affect the behavior of the cars.

Even more tested tires in Bahrain

« We can expect this to be a much more demanding circuit in terms of tire degradation than those previously traveled. The asphalt there is very, very coarse and rough. And the older an asphalt gets, the rougher it becomes. This type of surface greatly wears the tires and makes them overheat more easily. Therefore, we can expect a very complicated weekend in terms of managing tire temperatures, both at the front and rear, and degradation throughout the lap. »

The Briton also noted that under these circumstances, and given what happened during the winter tests a month and a half ago on this same track, McLaren should have the advantage. If we look at the grid, I would say the McLarens probably have an advantage over the other teams on this circuit.

Despite everything, the Woking team has shown that it can sometimes make mistakes. With such a tight pack, this error is costly, and Mercedes hopes, like Red Bull in Japan, to capitalize on these opportunities given by the papaya team to chase podiums and victories. Will we see a fourth different winner in four races? Tune in this weekend in Bahrain to find out.