Mercedes didn’t think Lewis Hamilton would be able to hold on to second place in the sprint race – but things suddenly went badly for the Briton in qualifying
Mercedes had not thought that Lewis Hamilton would be able to defend his second place on the grid in the sprint race in China. Hamilton had surprisingly started on the front row in the wet sprint qualifying and was then able to carry this position to the finish in the sprint race – but then behind Max Verstappen and not behind Lando Norris.
“If I’m honest, I didn’t expect us to be able to hold on to second place because I don’t think the car is fast enough on its own at the moment,” admits Head of Engineering James Allison in Mercedes’ latest strategy video.
Hats off to Hamilton for finishing second in difficult conditions in sprint qualifying, “but in dry conditions I felt we were likely to be swallowed up by the two Red Bulls, and others as well, because we have a pace difference to the front at the moment – we can’t deny that,” said Allison.
But things went in a favorable direction for Mercedes on Saturday: first Norris took himself out of contention for victory with a mistake at the start, and then Fernando Alonso held off the competition behind Hamilton, allowing him to pull out at least a small two-second buffer.
“It took a while for them to get past and that gave us some breathing space,” says Allison. Hamilton had no chance against Verstappen, but because Sergio Perez and the two Ferraris were unable to get past Alonso for a long time, it was no longer enough for them to be able to attack Hamilton.
“I don’t want to diminish the performance because it was a very controlled drive from Lewis and he got the absolute maximum out of the car,” says Allison, “but I think the circumstances of the race helped us a bit because Fernando acted as a buffer between us and the faster guys.”
However, just a few hours after the success in the sprint, the big disappointment for Hamilton and Mercedes followed: the seven-time world champion was eliminated in qualifying in 18th place in Q1.
The Briton had justified this with a different set-up direction, among other things, even if there were doubts about it: Nico Rosberg called it just an excuse that Hamilton keeps making, and teammate George Russell denied that he had a fundamentally different set-up to Hamilton.
Different approach than Russell
For Allison, the rule with the parc ferme now open between sprint and qualifying is a double-edged sword: “If you make the wrong choice between the sprint part and the main event, you can make the car slower and suffer as a result,” he says. This is because the set-up change can only be tested in qualifying – and then it is too late to make further changes.
“Lewis clearly said afterwards that he would have liked to have taken the same approach as George,” says Allison. However, he is not referring to the set-up, but the approach in qualifying.
Russell had fuel on board for two fast laps in Q1, “so he can get a feel for the car on the first flying lap, then do a cool-down lap and then have a second attempt that gives him more feel for the car.”
Hamilton, on the other hand, only put in one fast lap on each of his two attempts. “And afterwards, he said that he would have needed another lap,” said the technical director.
“He said that he had more understeer due to the changes, which made it easier for the wheels to lock when braking.” This also caught the Mercedes driver on the wrong foot in the hairpin, causing him to lose 0.7 seconds and retire, according to Allison. “Otherwise, he would have easily made it into Q3,” he is convinced.
Mercedes admits mistake
While Hamilton admitted this was his mistake, Allison emphasized that it was also the team’s fault for not encouraging him to do more like Russell. “And frankly, we should build a car that is not as difficult as the one we have at the moment and that causes drivers to make very uncharacteristic mistakes.”
“We have two of the best drivers in the world, and locking up at the end of a straight in a hairpin is not really part of Lewis’ portfolio and is a consequence of the car being too tricky.”
But Mercedes has learned from what happened in Shanghai and can apply these lessons at the next sprint event in Miami.
“We definitely learned this weekend that if you want to be ambitious, you should be ambitious in the sprint race and then dial it down for the main race, rather than the other way around,” says Allison.