SamH123 wrote:Were people surprised that Mercedes were so mediocre in sector 1 in South Korea?
Hamilton was comfortably in the upper half of top speeds but the whole race weekend they were dropping 2tenths+ in sector 1 (Hamilton was 12th in s1 in quali)
Lotus were dropping time in s1 as well but that's expected because they were 6km/h+ down in top speed
Not sure if I've missed it but I don't think Mercedes have had poor acceleration away from slow corners all season? On my live timing app there seems to be another s1 speed trap quoted (I assume it's half way down the long straight) and Mercedes were very slow in it...
They're probably not got much chance of pole in Suzuka if they are going to be so slow away from the chicane
I think it's clear that Mercedes was pretty poor out of T1 (and that's for both drivers), compared to Sauber and RBR, but even compared to Ferrari.
Fortunately, aside from the Casio Triangle and the Hairpin, there isn't much to worry about for Mercedes. Pole will be hard but not out of reach. They did very well in S2 of Korea so would expect a good S1 / S2 from Mercedes, especially through the off-camber parts of the track.
They do need to fix the race pace, as they had no answer to Lotus.
EDIT: Also, choice of compound will help Mercedes (Medium, Hard); it's no secret that Mercedes has not been as successful on the supersoft.