Beaten by Alpine, Mercedes blames a lack of top speed

Mercedes suspected that Suzuka was going to be a complicated track for the W13... and it didn't fail. The Silver Arrows failed far from the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari in qualifying on Saturday. But perhaps they did not expect to finish behind a Alpine, that ofEsteban Ocon. Race results: Lewis Hamilton will start 6th and George Russell only 8th in the Japanese Grand Prix.

Not very optimistic when arriving on the Japanese track, the German team found itself in battle with the French team, far from the two top teams. A disappointing result that the Mercedes drivers explain by the lack of top speed. “The car was really good today. I was really happy with the balance and with the settings we had it was just slow on the straights, confided Lewis Hamilton after qualifying. We've had a car with a lot of drag all year. I press the pedal as hard as I can, but we can't go any faster. We lose at least six tenths or something like that on the straights compared to the others. »

Mercedes hopes for rain for the Grand Prix

Russell echoed his teammate's feelings. Satisfied with his W13 in the twisty sections of Suzuka, the young Briton was much less delighted with his “Vmax”. “We are losing a lot of time on the straights compared to our rivals. This has been the case a bit since the start of the season, but I think it's the first circuit which has long straights with strong downforce, explained the ex-pilot Williams. Normally when you look at the circuits with long straights – Spa, Monza, even Silverstone – where you use low downforce and the high downforce circuits – Monaco, Budapest, Zandvoort, Singapore – they have short straights. You don't really see that deficit in straight line speed. But here, that weakness was truly exposed. »

With a top speed much lower than that of its competitors, Mercedes could experience a complicated Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday. The Silver Arrows are counting on the weather, and more precisely on the rain, to reduce this deficit. “We weren't too bad in the wet conditions. Either way, we should be a little closer than we were today, believes Lewis Hamilton, four times winner at Suzuka. We can just hope for a better result in the race. We can expect the Red Bulls and the Ferraris to go their separate ways and do their own racing. Hopefully we will be a little faster than we are today. »

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