Mercedes expects performance lag at Imola and Portimao against the Red Bull this season. Despite defeating the same team at Bahrain Grand Prix, it fear non-competitive pace at these Formula 1 tracks.
Lewis Hamilton with an aggressive team strategy had Red Bull running during the last race. He kept Max Verstappen at bay, who was pre-event favourite, through tyre management and defensive driving.
Mercedes is associating it victory at Sakhir GP to favorable conditions at the track. It will not enjoy the same characteristics at Imola and Portimao, which suits Red Bull.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside engineering director, shared his perspective and said: “I don’t think we’re good enough in the high-speed, and there’s plenty of that in Imola and in Portimao, and that’s one area where they’ve got an advantage on us at the moment.
“Bahrain’s quite an outlier circuit – it’s very hard on the rear tyres, and it’s been really windy here. We’ve had 30/40 km/h wind, which is pretty much the upper end of what you’d see in a normal race season.
“We’re certainly hoping that this is not one of our finest tracks because we’ve really had quite a tough time, and I think we’ve got the car in a decent window by the end. But it’s been awfully hard work.
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“If you look at Red Bull through the test, through free practice, their car just works really well. They’ve not looked weak at any point. Hopefully, we’ll find circuits that do suit us more than this.”
Mercedes is fully aware of the fact that Red Bull is the favorite team which enjoys a dominance over Mercedes. But the team is hopeful to exploit it W12 which has potential to match RB over the season.
Shovlin added: “What’s our mindset? We still don’t think we’ve got the best car, but we don’t think we’ve got everything out of the package yet.
“When you develop a car, there’s lots of areas that you look to exploit for performance and some of them we don’t think have delivered everything that they should. So we’re going to be working pretty hard to bring performance to the car in the next couple of races. But I think it’s going to be tough.
“With those circuits, there’s elements that I think will move us in the right direction . We have struggled with the rear end here in Bahrain and those circuits are a bit easier in that regard. But high-speed is something we wouldn’t be naive in thinking that’s going to be strength of ours at those tracks.”
