Mercedes drives with bigger rear wing, but fears Alpines Sunday

Mercedes knew it was not going to be an easy qualifying session in Japan, but sixth and eighth places for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell respectively can still be described as a little disappointing. Andrew Shovlin speaks of a difficult day.

"We've been struggling with the car in the dry today; the race work in the morning wasn't bad, but the single lap was proving difficult and the tyres just weren't biting," Shovlin reflected on Mercedes' Saturday. The German racing stable fell a full second short of pole-sitter Max Verstappen's time.

The W13's lack of top speed hurt at Suzuka. "We're losing a lot of time on the straights, but the corners are not especially strong either. By qualifying, the balance was in a reasonable place, but the lap time just wasn't coming. We stayed on the higher rear wing levels as the degradation in the morning was very high and there is a growing risk of rain in tomorrow's race. In both of those situations, the wing level should be a benefit."

Alpine comes on strong

However, driving with more wing also has a downside for Mercedes. It will be harder to pass Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon. Both Alpines in particular are fast on the straights and so that promises to be quite a task. "However, it will not be a benefit getting past the Alpine cars, though, which we need to do early if we stand any chance of getting into a race with Red Bull and Ferrari," Shovlin concludes.