Jolyon Palmer believes Mercedes can fight for victory in France ‘if they can work on their one-lap pace’
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Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes had have a bumpy season, at least in terms of their pace. While Silverstone and Spain have been notable highs, there have also been weekends like Baku, Monaco, or Jeddah, where they did not look particularly amazing. Their absolutely pristine reliability has helped them along the way to securing some very important results.
What is perhaps easiest to discern is that Mercedes have had their two worst weekends in terms of how the car looked – Baku and Azerbaijan, on street circuits, where the tracks are fairly bumpy. On the other hand, their best weekends have been on circuits that are pretty smooth, which reduces the bouncing effect.
Porpoising has been their Achilles’ heel, but the next races bode for them: France has a very smooth track surface, while Hungary will also be much better than Azerbaijan or Monaco. In Belgium, the porpoising technical directive will go into effect, which will probably help them further along their way in the future.
Palmer: “Mercedes need to address their qualifying form”
Writing in his column on the official Formula 1 website, Palmer says Mercedes need to work on their one-lap pace: “A problem they need to address is their qualifying form. So far this season, there have been three occasions where it looked like they might have the pace to fight for a win, but in all three, Hamilton has been on recovery drives rather than starting at the front.”
In Austria, at one point, both Mercedes looked very competitive in qualifying with the Red Bull and Ferrari cars, but both of them crashed, and instead of being able to fight at the front, they were forced into recovery mode, which surely hides the true potential of those cars. Mercedes have really only had a chance for victory in Silverstone this season, where Lewis Hamilton looked very strong, taking the fastest lap, but some of that was helped along by circumstances as well. Circumstances have often favoured Mercedes.
The fact is that Mercedes’ race pace has always been much better than their qualifying pace, and if they can address their one-lap pace, they surely have a better chance for victory. Wolff has recently stated that they are on top of the porpoising now, which will give them confidence for the future. Palmer says that France poses Mercedes’ best chance for a victory, as is very smooth, and they have gone well there in the past.
Palmer added: “If they hope to win in France, they must show more one lap pace on Saturday to get themselves in the mix at the start.” also saying that: “It’s one thing having race pace to match the leaders, but when you concede as much track position as they are doing at the moment, a victory fight will always be tough – and that is what has cost them in the last couple of races.”
France is one of the smoothest circuits on the calendar, and on paper, it can possibly be one of Mercedes’ best chances for a victory, but as Palmer said, they need to address their qualifying form, Otherwise, they will be fighting with the two frontrunners with one hand tied behind their back.
Also Read: Toto Wolff: ‘Porpoising TD will solve another problem’
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)