‘It clearly needs a bit of focus’: Andrew Shovlin believes Mercedes need more to take advantage of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc’s grid penalties
Mercedes F1 trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin
After almost a month long F1 summer break, the circus has finally arrived in Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix. With FP1 and FP2 over, it has been known that multiple drivers will be taking engine penalties which includes title contenders Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. This is a golden opportunity for Mercedes to claw up some ground on the top 2 teams. Although for the team to take full advantage, they will have to deal with Sergio Perez of Red Bull and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari.
With the “number 1” drivers starting at the back, the responsibility of qualifying at the front and getting the best possible result lies in the hands of Perez and Sainz. Mercedes has been on a charge all season and has managed to get double podiums on multiple occasions. Max Verstappen had a bad qualifying due to an issue in Hungary where he started from 10th place and went on to win the race. Starting from the back, it will be interesting to see where he ends up at the end of the race. Charles Leclerc will also be glad that his title rival will start near him as he needs all the luck possible in order to claw back on Verstappen’s lead. With the weather being a bit uncertain in Spa, anything can happen.
Drivers are having problems trying to get into the optimal tyre temperature range. Even at Mercedes, they are encountering this problem. Their drivers finished 4th and 9th in FP1 and 6th and 8th in FP2. They need to extract more performance out of the car if they want to have a chance to extract the best possible results. A scenario where both the title contenders are at the back of the grid doesn’t happen often. That is why it is necessary for Mercedes to capitalise on that . Andrew Shovlin further went on to give his thoughts on the situation.
“Clearly there is an opportunity,” Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin says
“Quite a messy day with a bit of a rain and a red flag but we were able to get a read on the main issues to work on overnight,” Shovlin said in a Mercedes press release. “Our single lap performance clearly needs a bit of focus,” he said.
“There wasn’t much useful learning on a long run given the conditions. We had the Hard tyre in the second session which was particularly difficult in the cool and damp but the Medium was working reasonably well in FP1,” he continued.
“Clearly there is an opportunity with the number of cars that are taking penalties, but we do need to find a bit of pace overnight if we are to capitalise on that,” he concluded.
It is clear that Mercedes has a lot of work ahead of them in order to take full advantage of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen’s grid penalties. Maybe they can go for their first win of the season. Lewis Hamilton has won a race in every season that he has competed in except this year. Let’s see if he is able to change that in the Belgian Grand Prix.
Varad Joshi
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