Mercedes to aim higher in Japan: 'Encouraging'

Mercedes may hope for a better result after the first day in Japan than at previous Grands Prix. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were particularly complimentary of the W15 and even spoke of the best Friday of the season. Andrew Shovlin endorses the feelings of the two Mercedes drivers.

"We've done a lot of work over the last week focused on making the car more consistent. We've seen across the first three races that we have sessions where we look strong, but when it comes to qualifying and the race, we've fallen short of our expectations," Trackside Engineering Director Shovlin said after the first two free practice sessions at Suzuka.

According to the top man, it is too early to say whether Mercedes has made the progress they hope for, but, "In the last two years here, we've struggled with a car that has had an inconsistent balance and has been difficult to drive. The team has done a lot of great work since Australia, and we seemed to hit the ground running today. The car was definitely in a sweeter spot. We've got a better baseline to start from this weekend and hopefully we can build on that.," he concluded.

Mercedes did not exactly fare well in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia, as only 26 points were jointly scored by Russell and Hamilton.