Mercedes finished Sunday’s F1 Japanese Grand Prix with P7 for George Russell and P9 for Lewis Hamilton. Team Principal Toto Wolff reflected on the strategy and the work ahead for his team saying “this is such a tough fight so we just, we just need to get it done.”
When the lights went out in Suzuka, they had done so with the Mercedes drivers in starting positions which became opposites by the time the chequered flag fell. Hamilton started seventh with teammate Russell back in ninth. The two Mercedes drivers maintained this for the first two corners before a red flag caused by a collision between Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon saw a whole host of strategies come into play throughout the grid.
Mercedes took the approach of starting their drivers on a hard compound for the standing restart while the majority of the field chose soft or medium. As expected, both drivers lost position at the start with the quicker compounds around them – Hamilton fell to P8 and Russell P10. Friday’s lack of running in FP2 meant that there were a lot of question marks around tyre performance and come race day the degradation was higher than predicted. Due to this, any plan of running a one stopper was benched and the two-stop strategy looked to be the best approach for Mercedes.
With stronger pace in the final two stints, Russell was able to apply continuous pressure to the McLaren of Oscar Piastri and when the Australian went wide before Turn 17 – before the final lap of the race – a combination of a tow down the main straight couple with DRS was enough for Russell to get by and claim P7. Having inverted positions with his teammate mid-race, realising his lack of pace, Hamilton had to settle for P9 but had more than played his team role in Japan.
Although the results would say otherwise, Mercedes definitely took a step forward in Suzuka. The W15 didn’t appear to suffer as much from porpoising and Hamilton had said after free practice 1: “It was a great session, the best session we’ve had this year and the best the car has felt this year so far.” Obviously, the opening stint of the race proved costly but there were still positives for Mercedes to take away from Japan.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO of Mercedes, told media reflected on his team’s performance in his post-race remarks.
“It was a difficult race today,” admitted Wolff. “Our second and third stints were quick and were similar to those ahead who were fighting for the podium. A poor first stint cost us today though and we need to find out why that was. Our decision to take the restart on the Hard tyres was the right one I feel, and, in the beginning, our pace was stable with our direct competitors. We suddenly dropped one to two seconds a lap though and at the moment, it was clear that the tyres wouldn’t make the one-stop viable for us.
“Overall, this weekend has been better than the final results suggest. We have lots to learn and there is no track relevant excuse we will use; we need to be quick at all circuits. But from what we’ve seen here, we can say that the car is becoming quicker.”
Wolff would also share comments speaking through the team’s social media: “Obviously, not at all the results you want to have on paper. There were some positives to take that we were really experimenting in a wide range of window and we’ve got some good data. Second and third stint was really good, we were close in qualifying but I mean, you know, the results on paper as I said they’re just not good enough.
“But we embark to China with more learning and more data and you know this is such a tough fight so we just, we just need to get it done.”
The second and third stints showed that the W15 does have good race pace but the single lap performance in qualifying is certainly doing the damage. Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director, also highlighted this as he told the media, “We weren’t quick enough in qualifying so were starting too far back to challenge for the podium.”
The Japanese Grand Prix has been a useful weekend for Mercedes and as Wolff has said, the team have gathered more data. However, as they continue to learn more about the W15 the races come thick and fast. Shanghai should suit Mercedes and they should have a promising weekend – on paper – but due to being a sprint weekend, efficiency will be key. If Mercedes leave China without battling for the podium, it could turn out to be a very long season for supporters of the Silver Arrows with charging bulls and prancing horses continuing to make the headlines.
