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Before Singapore, Mercedes have won all races apart from Malaysia and Hungary. In Malaysia, they could have blamed the team's decision to pit Hamilton under the Safety Car and for Hungary they just had a bad start along with bad luck. However, there is no justification for their loss in Singapore, other than just being 'Off the Pace'
Mercedes remain convinced that Marina Bay Track, is very unique when compared to other circuits on the calendar. Tyre wear is much more influential and it's something that the Silver Arrows failed to conquer and therefore, contributing to their lack of performance during Qualifying and the Race. Mercedes Head of Motorsport told F1.com that both cars endured a 'great' amount of tyre wear and those are the reason as of why both cars were nowhere near the front.
"I don't believe that you lose car performance from one race to the other so dramatically as we did - and I also don't believe that another team can find one and a half seconds in the same time. We have spoken to the drivers and both confirm that the degradation was massive - and in the end unexplainable for us."
From Monza to Singapore, there has been a '2 Second Swing' in raw lap time between Mercedes and Ferrari. Putting the blame on Tyre Wear does not seem a believable explanation to why they were so lacklustre for a team which has won 26 out of the last 31 races. Only the remainder of the season will determine whether this really was a 'Freak Result' and with Japan jsut being a week away, Mercedes will hope to put to bed any of the doubters who believe that there time at the top is now now over.
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
275 members have this team as their favourite
Replies (5)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Sure, Marina Bay is a tyre intensive track, but so is Monte Carlo, and I didnt see Mercedes in a bad condition there. I wonder... Mercedes supposedly have bigger turbos than the other engines. Bigger turbos can suffer more in humid, hot conditions... Its pure speculation, but I wonder if there's any connection.
Dr Red Bull
Posts: 41
That's a very good point, because they blamed the tyres to why the my lost the Malaysian race which was also a very humid race
khasmir
Posts: 893
Tyre wear can't really explain the bad results from Q. From what I understood they were having problems getting the tyres in the right temperature window.
And/or there is something about the Merc engine that does not like hot and humid conditions.
TonyB
Posts: 18
What is strange is that the Merc drives both complained about lack of grip, yet both cars were faster, over 310 kpm, compared to the Ferraris and much faster than the Red Bull. Why didn't they increase the wing angles to add to downforce. Are they so arrogant that once they have computed a socalled optimal setup on the simulator, they will not change it. Why didn't any of the reporters call Merc out?? Something funny going on here....
Dr Red Bull
Posts: 41
Not complaining though :D