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Mercedes suffering from balance issues at Silverstone

Published on 31 Jul 2020 19:44
7
By: Fergal Walsh

Mercedes ended Friday practice from the Silverstone Circuit with work to do, despite staying consistently towards the front of the timesheets.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas cited balance issues after the opening day of on-track action with the latter ending the second practice session in third place, one and a half tenth down on Lance Stroll.

Hamilton was fifth fastest in the afternoon and admits that his day of driving was “difficult’ due to the upset balance of the W11 car.

“It was quite a difficult day, to be honest,” Hamilton said. “I think it’s always windy here which is a good thing about this track, you got some wind in different directions, but it made it tricky today with the car.

“The balance is not as good as I would like. We’ll just work on it tonight and see if we can figure it out. It’s not a disaster but it’s definitely been a hard day of driving.

“The balance was not right, so I was just not feeling comfortable in general, but we went back out and I think the tyres weren’t as good as the first ones. That was the main reason.

“But we’ll work through it. We’ve got great engineers, that’s the great thing about this team is we continue to dive deep into the details and hopefully make some good changes overnight.”

That was a warm one ??

Friday running comes to an end at @SilverstoneUK with VB in P3 and LH in P5. Solid work out there today, Team ? pic.twitter.com/aEBntzh2s7
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) July 31, 2020

Bottas mirrored Hamilton's comments but admits he had a stronger feeling in the cockpit in FP2 compared to the morning session.

“I think the first session particularly was a bit more tricky balance-wise, so there’s obviously still work to do,” the Finn said.

“But in practice two, it was actually not a bad feeling. The gaps are quite small and normally we are able to make some good steps for qualifying. So, I’m not too worried really, because the overall feeling is quite good.”

With conditions at Silverstone hotter than normal, overheating was an issue for many of the drivers - however, Bottas says that it is nothing that has deeply worried him.

“Racing Point and Red Bull they seem quite strong as well, but it’s going to be completely different conditions tomorrow, with a lot less track temperature and the wind is going to change direction quite a bit and that normally has quite a big effect on this track.

“For sure we had some overheating, but I don’t know. I’m just not too worried. We’re just going to focus on our things tonight, see how much we can squeeze more performance [out] and hopefully, it’s going to be enough.”

Manto02

Posts: 93

Usually when they have balance issues they manage to do pole position, first row, race from start to finish in 1 2, fastest lap and be the only two cars not lapped

4
Jul 31 2020 - 21:37

F1 News Valtteri Bottas Lewis Hamilton Mercedes

Replies (7)

RogerF1

Posts: 501
As soon as they take the sand bags out of the side pods they’ll be ok on the day ;-)
- + 0
- Jul 31 2020 - 20:27
- RogerF1
  
  Posts: 501
  On second thoughts, may be trying to strike ‘a balance’ between giving the other teams a glimmer of hope to keep them interested or just blowing them off the track day by day?
  + 2
  
  Jul 31 2020 - 20:30
- ajpennypacker
  
  Posts: 2,475
  I expect them to be comfortably ahead on quali tomorrow. I still have hope for a proper race on Sunday. At least for 2nd place down. Stroll seems handy right now, Red Bull is clearly up there. Hulkenberg could definitely challenge if he has enough time to get up to speed.
  
  Generally speaking the midfield is really tight as well, which should make for exciting racing
  + 0
  
  Aug 1 2020 - 00:46
Manto02

Posts: 93
Usually when they have balance issues they manage to do pole position, first row, race from start to finish in 1 2, fastest lap and be the only two cars not lapped
- + 4
- Jul 31 2020 - 21:37
- mcbhargav
  
  Posts: 1,332
  Merc has more employees working on their F1 program than any other team. They have a bigger budget than any other team. They have the fastest racer on the pay role. They have the second best tech director on the duty. They had a v6 engine two/three generations ahead of competition before the start of 2014. Anyone HOPING for any other outcome than Merc decimating it’s competition is novice or a pathological optimist :)
  + 0
  
  Jul 31 2020 - 21:49
- Snooky
  
  Posts: 121
  Pathological optimism over here! Just wish o e day they’d get it disastrously wrong and end up midfield during the race and qualifying.... can’t see it happening but hoping one day they do
  + 0
  
  Aug 1 2020 - 07:34
RogerF1

Posts: 501
Shock, horror they seem to have found their balance in P3.
- + 0
- Aug 1 2020 - 12:45