Mercedes F1 returned to the podium in Baku but it was undeserved according to team principal Toto Wolff.
George Russell took advantage of the collision at the end of the race between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez to move from 5th to 3rd place.
The W15 is still not fast enough and that will be the case again in Singapore according to the Austrian. Things may change with a brand new floor planned after the 4-week autumn break between Singapore and Austin.
“We are heading straight to Singapore for the second race of this double,” Wolff comments.
“Although it’s a street circuit like Baku, Marina Bay is a different challenge. Physically, it’s incredibly demanding for the drivers and team members. The heat and humidity play a big part, but so does the track itself. It’s bumpy in places, has a mix of low and high-speed corners, and walls are waiting to trap you.”
“After a mixed weekend in Azerbaijan, we will learn from Baku and aim for a better performance in Singapore.”
“At times our pace was high but we couldn’t maintain it consistently. Our main challenge was controlling the tyre temperature and we know we have to improve. It’s encouraging that when we get the car working we’ll have the pace to be competitive.”
“Even though we came away with a podium, we know that it was fortuitous and that we were 5th on merit.”
Having lost momentum following their comeback before the summer break, Mercedes F1 is pinning its hopes on a completely new floor that it will introduce in Austin.
In the meantime, for the next race in Singapore, it will be another race with the floor they used in Baku, the one that was used before Spa.
“It’s not like it’s night and day between the floor before Spa and the one we discarded after Zandvoort and Monza,” Wolff confides.
“We have always suffered from the same balance that we had with the new floor. In Singapore we will have the same and we have to run with it. But from Austin onwards we will probably move to a new specification.”
And by new, he means “new new specification”not the one at Spa. But what will be used in the race will be decided after the tests.
“We’ll have to look at the data in Austin. You go for a brand new floor when the new one isn’t working properly, but the old one isn’t working great either. So old new or new new, we don’t know yet which will be the case in the US race.”
A new special livery for Singapore
The team will celebrate Petronas’ 50th anniversary by sporting a special, one-off livery at this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, seen below.
The predominant colour on the W15 will be the iconic emerald green of the team’s technical and title partner, replacing the silver on the nose and sidepods.
With Malaysia bordering the Asian city-state, the Singapore Grand Prix is the closest race to Petronas’ home. Toto Wolff, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will all visit Petronas in Malaysia next week as part of plans to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary.
