Mercedes on everyone’s lips
Mercedes arrived in Suzuka for the Japanese GP weekend, with everyone’s eyes on it. For the two doubles achieved in the first two races of the year – obviously – but also for the controversial rumors that continue to surround the Brackley W17s. After there was talk all winter about the Mercedes power unit and the issue of the compression ratio, now the focus is on the front wing of the silver arrows and the strange double closing phase seen in China.
The wing of discord
Russell, speaking to journalists in Japan, has married the team’s defensive linewho claims that what happened in Shanghai with the closure of the wing was not planned and did not lead to an advantage in performance, on the contrary: “It wasn’t intentional and it certainly wasn’t an advantage for us – the World Cup leader stated decisively – It was a problem, something to solve. There is no advantage because when we brake the wing is still open. Kimi had a block and I think this contributed. What happens? I can’t help you figure it out because I don’t know either. The rear wing has the air in favor when it closes, while the opposite is the case for the front wing. It has to overcome the headwind and requires greater pressure; I don’t know if we didn’t have enough, but it’s not easy to get it back up when you’re driving 300 km/h in a straight line“.
Everyone against us
Taking advantage of a question regarding the changes decided unanimously by all teams for the distribution of energy in qualifyingRussell complained about the desire to implement – in his opinion – changes aimed only at penalizing Mercedes: “This sport is like this, it has always happened. Our team worked hard to put us in this position and the best team should win: we had four difficult years while there were two other teams (Red Bull and McLaren) who won and dominated. Just because we’re back on top now I don’t think it’s right for everyone to try to slow us down – claimed Russell – especially given that just two races of a very long season have passed. Things will change: we know that Red Bull is overweight, that McLaren hasn’t brought any updates yet. We must not forget these things: we now have an advantage and we hope to maintain it, but it is not guaranteed. Challenge between me and Kimi for the title? We as Mercedes now have a small advantage over Ferrari and a bigger advantage over everyone else, but these things change quickly. Thinking about the championship now is premature“, he commented.
