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Mercedes realistic that Singapore will be "more difficult"
Mercedes is bracing itself for a more difficult time at the Singapore Grand Prix, despite its back-to-back Formula 1 victories in Belgium and Italy.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Sep 7, 2017, 4:48 PM
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Lewis Hamilton's triumphs after the summer break have moved him to the top of the drivers' championship for the first time this year – with Sebastian Vettel struggling for speed in Monza last weekend.
With the Mercedes better on high speed circuits, and Ferrari having the edge at higher downforce venues, many are expecting Vettel to be the man to beat in Singapore.
The Marina Bay circuit, with its tight corners and high downforce demands, is perfectly suited to the Ferrari – and Mercedes well remembers its struggles there back in 2015.
Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff says that his outfit has learned valuable lessons from what has gone wrong in Singapore in the past, but knows it will not be a straightforward weekend.
"Singapore wasn't the best place for us in the past and we were extremely delighted to win it last year, because we had such a difficult time in 2015," he explained.
"I still believe there are certain characteristics of the tracks that suit the car or not, and you can see this year, the slow, twisty circuits have rather suited Red Bull and Ferrari. Lots of high speed downforce was good for our car.
"Now, I don't think that's a pattern you can't break. It's about understanding the car and the more we clock mileage the more we learn about it.
"Nevertheless I still expect it to be a more difficult weekend for us than Monza, Spa or Silverstone because of those characteristics."
One of the areas where Mercedes has paid particular attention in recent weeks is its performance in low speed corners – having faced some difficulties at Spa, especially at La Source.
Wolff believes that the compromises it made in Belgium, where it sacrificed downforce for top speed, helped it better understand what is needed to get more performance from its car at the type of corners so common in Singapore.
"With the new car we are still finding out how to simulate in the best possible way what you think you are going to experience on the track," he said.
"We had some very strong sectors in Spa and we sacrificed raw speed for race speed, and therefore we lacked low downforce performance, braking stability, apex stability and traction.
"We tried to understand that and optimise that for Monza. You can see that we didn't have any of those issues in the slow speed at Monza."
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