Mercedes doubts set-up decision: 'Hope we get some dry running'

After an eventful and chaotic qualifying session during the race weekend in Belgium, it is safe to say that Mercedes did not have their heads in the game after the summer break. Technical and Strategic Director Andrew Shovlin describes the day as messy for the team and hopes that the set-up decisions made on Sunday will prove decisive.

"It was a messy qualifying session by our standards," Shovlin admitted in a Mercedes press release. "We didn't always read the conditions right and in the second session we could have managed the risk better as at one stage, a double yellow or red flag would have seen both cars bumped out."

Shovlin is not satisfied with the performance in Q3 either. Both drivers were beaten by George Russell and Max Verstappen. "We still had it all to play for in the final session, but we dropped a bit too much tyre temperature on the slow lap and lost a bit of grip. It does look like a number of cars have moved more towards a wet set-up than we have, particularly in terms of downforce level", said the technical director.

Mercedes doesn't want rain

Looking ahead to the Grand Prix, Shovlin states that in terms of set-up Mercedes have prepared for a dry race, the wisdom of which will be seen tomorrow. Shovlin concludes: "Despite that our performance in the middle sector was good and our straight-line speed is strong, so we're not unhappy with our set-up decisions given the forecast. But if we could choose, we'd like at least a bit of dry running at some point tomorrow."