© Sebastian Kawka for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin says the team has “the simulator team back in Brackley and they’ll be getting that ready to roll and hopefully we’ll make some progress for the next session”.
After Japanese Grand Prix FP1, Mercedes’s Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin said the team believes they can still improve the car enough through their regular means, to be able to be more competitive for the rest of the weekend.
“Well, on the basis of FP1, we’re glad it’s not a sprint race, because we’ve got a bit of work to do,” Shovlin said.
“But you know, we haven’t changed the car coming here. The circuit’s unique, but it’s not a total outlier. It’s not like Monaco or somewhere.
“So, logic tells you we can probably chip away at it, try and get it in a better window. We just haven’t landed with a great balance here.
“And it’s also a little bit confusing hopping around with a new tyre compound.
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“But fundamentally, a bit of work to do on the set-up, we probably get that, half the tracks. We land at, we’re having to adapt the car to get it to work.
“And again, that ties in with what Lewis was saying. It’s not an easy car to just land on track, and it does everything you want it to: you do need to do a lot of fine-tuning.
“But our record for doing that has been pretty decent over the year. So, we’ll do the work we normally do.
“We’ve got the simulator team back in Brackley and they’ll be getting that ready to roll and hopefully we’ll make some progress for the next session,” the Briton concluded.
