Mercedes F1 says last year’s F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix data cannot be used as a benchmark for this weekend’s F1 title face-to-face.
Max Verstappen put an end to Mercedes’ sixth straight victory at the Yas Marina Circuit with a comfortable pole-to-win at the final round of the 2020 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
However, last year’s Mercedes F1 is believed to have failed to produce results due to its concentration of resources elsewhere, and Lewis Hamilton was also unable to perform due to the convalescence of the new coronavirus.
The Yas Marina circuit has also been partially reprofiled for this year, with the old Turn 5/6 and Turns 11-14 composites fixed and almost open to Sector 3.
“Now the laps are faster. It should be much faster and the whole race will be faster,” explained Andrew Shovlin, chief of trackside engineering at Mercedes.
“Also, the tarmac has a little patchwork quilt, and the balance is changing little by little.”
“Last year, Lewis was competing a few days after the coronavirus period when it came to who had the advantage. It wasn’t performing at its best. It wasn’t easy to get over.”
“Post-event analysis suggested that we had the setup in the wrong place. We had development tires and were working on them. Ironically, we were winning the championship. So instead of focusing on the weekends, I focused on understanding the tires. “
“I wasn’t prepared enough and I ended up racing on an unbalanced machine.”
Nonetheless, Andrew Shoblin warned that Mercedes couldn’t enter the weekend in the hope that it would have an advantage over Red Bull.
“There were a lot of good races in Abu Dhabi, but I’m worried about the unknown. The tracks have a lot of new areas and we’re not at all good on the tracks we thought were competitive like Austin. I’ve seen performance fluctuations like that. “
“In Saudi Arabia, Red Bull made a big difference on a single lap, so there’s a lot to worry about. Tires are the softest, so they can be really tricky.”
“We’re treating it as a new circuit. We know what we need to do. We need to go there and win.”
Category: Category: F1 / Mercedes / F1 Abu Dhabi GP
