Mercedes relishing "absolutely fantastic" title fight with Red Bull
Mercedes relishing "absolutely fantastic" title fight with Red Bull
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin described the fierce title battle with Red Bull as "absolutely fantastic" with just two races remaining of the campaign.
Back-to-back successes for Lewis Hamilton in Brazil and Qatar have seen the Mercedes driver close the gap to Max Verstappen in the drivers' standings to just eight points.
In this time, however, Red Bull has been able to close the margin in the constructors' battle to five due to a run of five consecutive top four results for Sergio Perez.
“Well, considering that we have just come off from a triple header, we are feeling pretty good, but we are very excited to be part of this challenge," said Shovlin.
"It's shaping up to be an absolutely fantastic battle. We've seen the car working really well and that gives us hope that we can go to the next two tracks and fight for pole position, fight for wins and that's what we need to do.
"But we are all feeling good, we are excited, we are full of energy and we are going to make sure that we do absolutely everything we possibly can to bring these championships home.”
In the closing stages, Red Bull stopped Verstappen to secure the bonus point for the fastest lap, limiting Hamilton's ability to inflict further damage to the Dutchman's title lead.
Explaining why Mercedes had not stopped Hamilton, Shovlin explained: “Well, Red Bull deliberate timed it so that from their stop, all that Max is able to do is an out lap and a flying lap so he can then take that fastest lap which he actually held anyway from the previous stint.
"With Lewis, if we had pitted after Max had pitted all we would have been able to do was the out lap and that obviously doesn’t count for fastest lap, so it's quite normal that you leave it for the penultimate lap because when you do stop you open up the window for the race leader and if you do it on the penultimate lap it means that they have no opportunity to actually set a proper lap time.”
Related
Change your timezone:
Latest News
F1 team lodge FIA PROTEST over Chinese Grand Prix qualifying result
- 49 minutes ago
Hamilton in 's*** happens' outburst after huge China failure
- 1 hour ago
F1 News Today: Alonso hit with China PENALTY as Hamilton endures Shanghai nightmare
- 1 hour ago
F1 star PENALISED following controversial Chinese GP incident
- 2 hours ago
F1 Qualifying Results: Chinese Grand Prix 2024 times - 100th Red Bull pole as Hamilton crashes out in Q1
- 2 hours ago
Hamilton suffers CATASTROPHIC F1 qualifying after early exit
- 3 hours ago
Related news
Wolff left FUMING with Mercedes despite amazing Hamilton lap
Wolff 'p*****' by Verstappen error as star makes Mercedes debut
Hamilton to open Wolff talks at Mercedes amid Ferrari F1 move uncertainty
Mercedes announce MAJOR £5.9 million loss in profits
F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
About GPFans
GPFans is a multi-platform, multi-language brand dedicated to Formula One coverage. We bring you all the ins and outs of the sport, 24/7, everything from up-to-the-minute news and features to the latest viral stories and clips.We believe that a new generation of exciting, outspoken drivers will make F1 more popular than ever before, and we want to give our users access to as much of their heroes as possible, on and off the track. From Lewis Hamilton to Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo to Sebastian Vettel, we provide in-depth analysis of every every Grand Prix in the season, from Australia to Abu Dhabi.
With Formula One under the new ownership of Liberty Media, how the sport is being covered is evolving, and GPFans will look to be at the heart of this progression into new media, as one of the fastest-growing sites covering the king of motorsports.
Follow us on your favorite social media channel
Corporate & Media
Innovatieweg 20C7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31645516860