Mercedes outline BOLD Singapore GP expectations after falling behind Ferrari

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Mercedes outline BOLD Singapore GP expectations after falling behind Ferrari

Andrew Shovlin expects Mercedes to perform well in Singapore

George Brabner

Sunday 10 September 2023 09:57

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Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has expressed optimism for the Silver Arrows’ performance at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Ferrari were Red Bull’s closest challengers at the Italian Grand Prix. Having secured pole position with Carlos Sainz, the Scuderia were able to take the fight to Max Verstappen in the early stages of the 51-lap race and had the clear upper hand over Mercedes.

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Second place in the constructors' championship is a hotly contested fight with McLaren, Aston Martin, Ferrari and Mercedes all having made a claim to the informal title of 'the best of the rest' after the dominant Red Bull team in 2023, but the advantage went firmly the way of Ferrari in Italy.

However, Shovlin expects Mercedes to come back into their own on the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

He said in a Mercedes debrief after the Italian Grand Prix: “Well, we’re certainly hoping so [that Singapore will suit the W14 more than Monza], but there’s reason to think that the car will work better because Singapore is a maximum downforce circuit and our performance at the high downforce tracks, if you look at Barcelona, Budapest, even Zandvoort in the race the car was working well, we've had pretty strong performance.”

Where Mercedes fall behind

Russell and Hamilton finished fifth and sixth in Monza for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s best results in 2023 have typically come at circuits requiring a high downforce setup, whilst both drivers have reported discomfort in the W14 at low downforce tracks such as Spa.

That was no less evident at Monza, where Ferrari excelled in comparison to the team from Brackley. Whilst better matched to their Italian colleagues in qualifying with Russell, Mercedes could not keep up in the race as Shovlin explained.

“Fundamentally in the race, we didn’t quite have the pace and it seems that when we go to the low downforce settings, Ferrari get more competitive, and in Monza, it looked like they had one and a half to two and a half tenths of performance on us.

“Now, when you have that kind of advantage, it’s very very difficult to challenge anyone on strategy. So, ultimately, the best that we could have achieved was the P5 with George behind the pair of Ferraris.”