Mercedes trying to stay positive after lost day at Nurburgring

The entire Formula 1 paddock were twiddling their thumbs on Friday at the Nürburgring in the hope that they could still drive on the circuit. The fact that this was not the case, in the end, means that the teams will have to do a lot on Saturday in a very short time. Getting off to a good start is more important than ever.

"Not running today is going to make tomorrow busy, but it's similar to the challenge we are going to face in a few weeks when we have the two-day schedule at Imola," said Andrew Shovlin, who is trying to give another positive spin from the Mercedes' point of view. "There's a lot that we need to learn about the car and tyres here in a short period and the drivers are having to get to grips with a track that they have not run on for many years."

F1 teams under time constraints

The teams normally tune their programme during the free practice sessions in such a way that they make the most efficient use of time. It is therefore inevitable that they will not be able to complete their usual programme on Saturday. And if they are not immediately on the right track, it will be difficult to recover.

"There are quite a few items of setup and car specification that we normally tune throughout the Friday, so it's quite a challenge to get things in the right window and we need to do that to have a productive session. It also doesn't give us long to work out how to get the most out of the car and tyres in the cold conditions."