Mercedes think they have "a better understanding of where we stand" after their struggles in hot races
Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin reckons that the Brackley-based outfit has "a better understanding of where we stand" after its struggles in hot conditions at the Red Bull Ring.
Despite his promising pace on Friday, Andrea Kimi Antonelli started the Austrian Grand Prix from P9 on the grid. The Italian displayed strong performance in qualifying, but he was unable to complete his last push lap in Q3 due to yellow flags brought out for a spin of Pierre Gasly.
Although he hoped for better fortunes in the Spielberg race, his afternoon ended after just three corners. The Bologna-born driver locked up the rear brakes of his Mercedes into Turn 3, and was unable to decelerate enough to avoid the back of Max Verstappen’s RB21.
With both cars having suffered significant damage, both Antonelli and Verstappen were forced to retire from the Austrian Grand Prix.
His team-mate George Russell picked off his former team-mate Lewis Hamilton into Turn 1, but lost the place back quite quickly. The British driver was unable to challenge the McLarens and the Ferraris as his Mercedes struggled for race day on the hot day at the Red Bull Ring.
Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin reckons that the Brackley-based outfit has "a better understanding of where we stand" after its struggles in hot conditions at the Red Bull Ring.
"It is a shame that Kimi’s race got cut short at Turn Three. He locked the rear axle going into the corner, tried to avoid the cars ahead but unfortunately locked the front brakes too and ran into Max (Verstappen). This unfortunately marked the end of his race in Austria.
"On the other side of the garage, George struggled a lot with his tyre degradation. The conditions were much warmer than what we had in Free Practice and managing his tyres carefully was the only choice he was left with.
"The high temperatures here just showed where our weakness is again, and we will work really hard to solve this for the upcoming races.
"After struggling this much in hot races, we now have a better understanding of where we stand and what needs to be done to perform better. The next few days will see intense work from the team and hopefully we will be able to fight for a podium in Silverstone," Shovlin concluded.
