© Stephen Reuss for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Mercedes’ Technical Director James Allison says the engineers and Mick Schumacher worked “until 2am” trying to get the car “in good shape for a qualifying lap”.
Mercedes had a very difficult time on Friday ahead of the British Grand Prix, as their car was not performing well in terms of single lap pace.
On Saturday, however, the car’s performance had gotten much, much better. The team’s Technical Director James Allison explains this was thanks to the long hours Mick Schumacher and the engineers had put in overnight.
“Over the years, the overnight work that happens on a Friday night preparing for Saturday, that has become more and more of an important factor in the rhythm of your race weekend,” Allison said in Mercedes’ British Grand Prix debrief video.
“And this weekend was a particularly important one. We had seen on our Friday that we had a really good race car.
“We had good, consistent, strong pace from both drivers and it looked like we were going to use our tyres well in the race stints on Sunday.
“So we knew that our setup was sort of there or thereabouts and we wouldn’t want to change it too much, because you might sort of upset that delicate usage of the tyres that’s key to getting a good race run.
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“However, we also knew on Friday that our one-lap pace was woeful, we were way down the timesheet, not with a bunch of excuses along with it, we were just slow.
“So our challenge overnight was how to find pace in a car for qualifying, without actually really sort of mucking about with the fundamental setup of the car.
“And that’s what they set to do on Friday night in our simulator. The engineers and Mick Schumacher working late into the night until 2am trying to figure out how to get the best preparation of the car to be in good shape for a qualifying lap, for that single-push lap without changing the fundamental setup.
“So only working on the sort of things you can change, the tyre pressures, flap angles and so on, the things that you’re allowed to change between qualifying and race and therefore things that we can do without upsetting the fundamental setup of the car.
“Brilliant overnight work from that team and the result being the our single lap qualifying-type pace lifted right back up to being in the mix for a decent grid slot on the Saturday which is what sets up our ability to have a good race on Sunday,” the Briton concluded.
