Two weeks ago, Mercedes endured a grueling Australian Grand Prix.
If Friday at Suzuka is any indication, the Silver Arrows could make a strong comeback at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The team left Melbourne battered and bruised, with nothing left to show for their efforts Down Under. Lewis Hamilton’s day came to an early end after just 15 laps when his W15 developed trouble. George Russell remained in contention for the points, but an accident on the penultimate lap while battling for position with Fernando Alonso ended the day and ruled Mercedes out of the result.
The team shifted its focus to Japan, and team principal Toto Wolff also changed his plans and ended up making the trip to Suzuka. And Friday’s practice session left the team feeling more optimistic heading into Saturday.
“We’ve done a lot of work over the last week with a focus on improving the stability of the car. We had some strong-looking sessions in the first three races, but when it came to qualifying and racing, we fell short of expectations.” said Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin in a team article. Practical report. “It’s too early to say whether we’ve made the progress we wanted, but it’s encouraging that the drivers are happy with how the car feels. The data also shows that we were able to get the tires at a better time. It suggests.”
It was Hamilton’s best day of the season.
“FP1 was a great session for us. It was our best session so far this year and the car felt great,” said the seven-time champion. “This is a circuit that all our drivers love to drive on, so we felt very positive and excited for FP2.”
Although the second practice session was cut short due to rain, Hamilton still believes the W15 is in a good position heading into the weekend.
“For the last two years we have struggled with cars that are unbalanced and difficult to drive. The team has done a lot of great work since Australia and it looks like we started well today,” said Hamilton. added. “The car was definitely in a sweeter position. We have a better baseline to start this weekend and we hope we can build on that.”
Russell also praised the good start to the weekend, but warned Mercedes fans that weather conditions may be playing a bigger role than anything else.
“We performed better than expected in FP1. It was a pleasant surprise and the feeling of driving the car was really great. Lewis and I were both happy with the overall balance. However, the W15 It performs better when it’s low, so you have to be careful about that,” Russell explained. “Our focus today was to try out a number of test items and experiments to increase the stability of the car under different conditions. Only time will tell if these had the intended effect. I understand, but it was frustrating that I couldn’t appreciate it more in the afternoon.”
Mercedes will go the extra mile to get its W15 into ideal conditions ahead of Saturday’s qualifying.
But after the trip to Australia, this is exactly the start to the Japanese Grand Prix the team was looking for.
