Mercedes drivers won the fourth row at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix. After qualifying, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell agreed that seventh and eighth places reflected Mercedes’ speed at Suzuka.
Lewis Hamilton (7th): “Yesterday was a bad day. Every race weekend we have at least one bad day.
The day before the balance of the car left a lot to be desired, but we adjusted the settings and today the car performed well overall. It was fun driving in the third practice – I felt much more confident behind the wheel.
I did my best in qualifying, but in the first sector we lost seven tenths because the rear wheels had no grip. Our car puts more load on the front wheels, but not enough on the rear wheels.
We have made a lot of progress in finding a solution and it is 100% clear to me that we have to change the concept of the car next year. I hope we do that.
Today I did my best. I’m happy with my laps, but we’re just not fast enough compared to the rest.”
George Russel (8th): “The result fully reflects our speed on this type of circuit. As soon as the track has a combination of fast and slow corners, we start to have problems.
On circuits with the same type of corners, such as last week in Singapore, we know how to find the optimal settings and maximum downforce. This is no surprise, but still somewhat shocking. But if you think rationally, today’s result was to be expected.”
Andreas Shovlin, chief racing engineer: “Last night we made some changes to the settings, aimed at increasing the speed of the car in the first sector. We performed worst in training with him. We managed to improve a bit, but ultimately our result can be explained by the speed we are capable of in Turn 1.
We’ve done a good job all year improving the chassis’ performance in slow corners. But on this circuit, especially in the first sector, a high level of downforce is required at a certain ride height. And in this respect the W14 car is not the most efficient; this is precisely the reason for the lack of pace.
The Ferrari team is our biggest competitor in the championship. Tomorrow we will keep a close eye on their tactics because they start ahead of us and we hope we can compete with them. Unlike them, we have a second set of hard tires, and we can take advantage of that when solving tactical problems.
As the first stint progresses, it will finally become clear how intensively the rubber breaks down and what influence this has on the race.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
