Andrea Kimi Antonelli says Mercedes turned things upside down to make the upgrades work somewhat in F1 Singapore GP.
Even with the head-scratching situation, Mercedes is working on the upgrades with Antonelli. After a slightly better outing in the sprint race, the team fine-tuned it further for a better run for the Italian in the F1 Singapore GP qualifying.
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Antonelli finished fourth in qualifying, which was much better and competitive. But the Italian found limitations still. He noted about small window of performance with the package and higher sensitivity, which limited his performance scale.
They learned more, but there’s still some way to go. “Yes, definitely, we start seeing what the package can give to us,” said Antonelli to the media after F1 Singapore GP qualifying. “However, it’s still difficult to find the right window. We did a big step in setup today, and we seem to put the car in a better place, even by giving away a bit of performance.
“But the car just seemed to work in a better way. However, the window was still very small. Very sensitive to, especially throughout qualifying, when you try to push more and more with the track improvement, the car was reacting quite differently to any extra pushing, braking a little bit later, combining a bit more.
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“So, the window is still very small, but the team did a great job on turning around, and now we start to get some answers. If in Malaysia we were a bit lost, now we have the head a bit more clear,” summed up Antonelli, who revealed setup changes made from sprint to qualifying, for the upgrades to work somewhat better.
(Photo by Alastair Staley/LAT Images)
He feels the data gathered in Singapore will help it use it better in Austin, when they get more practice time. He thinks in the right window, the car can extract better results. “Yeah, I mean, to be fair, we went completely opposite with the setup and the car was in a happier place,” continued Antonelli. “However, I think we still need a bit more time.
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“I think in Austin, obviously, we go back to a normal weekend and I feel like we can explore a lot more. The best would be to have two cars on the same spec, because at least, you can try very different things on both, because yeah, I think, the team did a tremendous job on trying to bring this package.
“And it has improved in certain areas, but definitely it has shifted the window in a different way. So just need to keep working, keep exploring. But then I’m sure once we find the right window, then we’re going to be able to use the potential of the package,” summed up Antonelli.
When pressed to clear what sort of setup changes, Antonelli noted balance improvement by shedding some aero performance. He stressed that the window is still small, but it is much better than where they were in Malaysia.
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“Yeah, just really trying to make the car, because yesterday, the car was just sliding,” said Antonelli. “It was sliding a bit everywhere. So just trying to stabilise a bit the car, giving away a little bit of aero performance, but just yeah, having a bit better, a more stable platform.
“But still the window, even though it was better to drive, the window was still very small. But I think, the good thing is that now we start to see what the package brings and areas where we need to work on, and we are starting to get some answers, which is a good thing.”
Photo Jiri Krenek / Active Pictures
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Teammate George Russell, who ended up sixth, felt the same by just looking at his shoulder in the limited time. He could see an improvement, but not the step that they expected from the package. However, there is some encouragement to find some answers.
“I mean it was positive to see Kimi sort of more competitive today than yesterday, however we weren’t exactly lighting the timing screen on fire,” said Russell to the media. “So, as a team, we’re still not satisfied with where we are with the new package.
“And I think we recognised we do need to make some setup adjustments to compensate for those changes, so maybe we can find a way to make it work and be fast, but right now, yeah we need more time,” summed up Russell, who is to start from the back of the grid due to a power unit change after the Malaysia failure.
After his F1 sprint crash, the Mercedes driver affirmed that the car didn’t feel the same as which was normal. It is now about salvaging as much on Sunday. “Yeah, obviously a very bad day all in all and stemming from my own mistake,” said Russell. “I mean the objective of quali was to make sure that the car was feeling the same as it did yesterday.
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“For whatever reason, it wasn’t, which is not sometimes a surprise when the whole team put it back together so quickly, and it’s obviously been in the wall, but yesterday we were competitive every lap we did and today was not the case.
“Well, just the car didn’t feel quite the same. I was struggling with the rear end and then I was overheating my tires, and it was just a bit of a downward spiral, whereas yesterday it all just clicked, and it was all working well, so we need to see why that was.”
