Canadian GP team review: Mercedes

Mercedes came into the race in a confident mood after a solid performance at the Monaco GP. But after a strong qualifying performance at Montreal as well, the Mercedes team struggled during the race, with both drivers finishing a place lower than their starting position. Mercedes have struggled all season to replicate their qualifying pace during the race, but the result at Canada shows that they are yet to find the right car setup to get the maximum out of the Pirelli tyres.

Both the drivers showed good pace in the wet conditions during qualifying. Hamilton’s best lap in Q3 was just 8/100th of a second slower than Pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel, and had to settle for 2nd. Nico Rosberg faced problems with his radio and believes that he could have challenged for second successive pole-position otherwise.“My excuse today is that I didn’t have the radio working except for a very short space on the straight. But the team didn’t know that” said Rosberg.

“So it was more or less like having no radio – and that made it really difficult with these conditions because I didn’t have KERS working, I didn’t have the right settings, and I didn’t have the brake temperatures up and all these things. That was my problem today” he explained.

Starting from the first row of the grid, Hamilton’s race pace was well off Vettel’s, but his two-stop strategy seemed to be working until his tyres started losing grip at the ending stages of the race, and Fernando Alonso managed to overtake the Mercedes with 9 laps to go.

“Being hunted down by Fernando is like being chased by a bull and so I just didn’t need anyone in my ear when I was already at the maximum I could go at.”

“It’s just grip, just a lack of grip,” Hamilton lamented. “The car was fantastic, I’m assuming those guys [Alonso and race winner Sebastian Vettel] had even better than that. I was just lacking a little bit of grip in the lower speeds perhaps the chicane. Fernando seemed to be particularly quick in the lower-speed corners.”

“He was massively quick and it was very difficult to keep him behind. I tried my best. I got close once he got past me, but he was just generally too quick for me. But you know, it’s still a good result for me considering that these guys are massively quick.”

With his home race coming up next, Hamilton hopes that the team can generate some extra pace for the race at the British GP.

“We’ve got some improvements coming and I hope they help us in the race because that’s where we are losing points”

Rosberg, who was looking to carry the momentum of the Monaco GP race win into Montreal, had to endure a difficult race as he finished 2 places behind his team-mate Hamilton.

Mercedes had a a crucial decision when Rosberg came in for his first pit stop, whether to fit medium tyres and go for a longer stint or fit supersofts to try and improve lap time to catch up with 4th placed Webber. They decided to go with a new set of supersoft tyres despite all evidence that the medium were much better. Rosberg later admitted that this decision was “a mistake”, as the plan backfired causing the German to pit three times, the only driver to do so in the race.

“I think fifth place was probably my optimum today” he conceded.

With Silverstone three weeks away, all eyes will now be on the FIA international tribunal hearing on the controversial Mercedes-Pirelli tyre test, on 20th June. Mercedes have protested their innocence while rivals Red Bull and Ferrari have asked for sporting penalties to be imposed on Ross Brawn’s team, if found guilty of breaching F1 regulations. The International Tribunal has a range of options to penalize Mercedes, if found guilty, ranging from a small fine to exclusion from the World Championships.