Mercedes is optimistic that the team can have a much better weekend at Zandvoort than at Spa last weekend.
There, on Friday and Saturday, the Silver Arrows had a big gap to the leaders that doesn’t seem to be there in the Netherlands: Lewis Hamilton was just 0.072 seconds behind in third place on Friday.
“It was a decent start to the weekend and I feel much more comfortable in the car,” says the Briton. “It’s just a completely different track and with some progress we’re not that far behind, which is great to see. There’s probably not much left in the car, but we’ll keep working.”
According to senior race engineer Andrew Shovlin, the W13 was “much easier to balance at Zandvoort than at Spa and it looks like we’re in a better position in terms of pace.” He says: “We still lack some pace on one lap and on long runs, but the distances are much better than a week ago.”
Zandvoort is a completely different circuit than Spa. While two sectors in Belgium mainly consist of long flat-out sections, downforce is what counts in Zandvoort. That seems to accommodate Mercedes: “Spa was an outlier of what our car likes,” says Mercedes Motorsport Director Toto Wolff.
“This is a better track and you can tell we’re on the music.” George Russell, who finished fifth on Friday, also noticed that: “The car works better, without a doubt,” he states and assumes that it could be pretty tight on Saturday – but not only at the front.
“McLaren will be quick, even Aston Martin,” he says. “We know qualifying is still our weak point but the race should suit us and I think our long run pace is strong.”
Russell: Pole would be ‘a shock’
But he didn’t get a precise insight into the long run pace because the time monitor didn’t work. “We didn’t have the same information as we had on TV so we couldn’t really see what our long run pace was like,” said Russell. “But we will look at it and collect as much data as possible. We are in a relatively good position.”
But for a good race result, qualifying has to go well. “You have to start from the right position. When we’re on the third row, it’s going to be difficult to fight for first or second place,” he says.
In Hungary, Russell surprisingly took pole position, but he doesn’t dream of that here, even though Zandvoort and the Hungaroring do have similarities. “Hungary was unique,” he says. “Our opponents didn’t get it right and we did a really good job and everything went well for us.”
“I would be very shocked if we had a repeat from Hungary,” he says. “But we’ve definitely gotten closer in a while.”
Hamilton says: Still problems with bouncing
Teammate Lewis Hamilton does not yet want to determine whether a result similar to that in Hungary is possible. “It’s still too early for that,” he says, “but we were a lot closer today than before. We’ll work hard tonight and carry on as before.”
But he also says: “We still have problems with bouncing and we will work on it. But I hope that we will continue to make progress from Friday to Saturday. That would be fantastic.”
Shovlin added: “Neither driver has the balance he wants so far and both felt the car was a little easier to drive in the morning. In the afternoon we had understeer in some places and lacking in others Stability. These are not major issues but we need to fix them overnight if we want to cause problems for Red Bull and Ferrari tomorrow.”
Speaking of Red Bull: They didn’t have the best day on Friday and only finished eighth and twelve. “Yes, they had a difficult day,” says Hamilton. “They missed most of the first session and didn’t make the laps at the end.”
But he doesn’t think it will stay that way: “They will still have six or seven tenths up their sleeves, so it will be relatively easy for them.”