Mercedes could pull off the upset of all upsets this weekend in Abu Dhabi, as the Silver Arrows have a genuine chance of overtaking Ferrari in the constructors’ championship.
The team went into the Brazilian Grand Prix last week with a large gap to the Scuderia, but a stunning one-two finish spearheaded by George Russell saw the team close that gap to just 19 points.
Mercedes have looked impressive in free practice, with both their drivers finishing all three sessions in the top four.
The Silver Arrows have qualified fifth and sixth, behind both Red Bulls and Ferraris, and Toto Wolf has suggested that that is probably where they would have expected to have been come the end of qualifying.
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The Mercedes team boss has revealed that the team have a ‘table of doom’ which helps the Silver Arrows determine which tracks their car is better suited to, and where they think the W13 may struggle.
“So we have this internal table of doom, which kind of forecasts whether we are good at the track or not in terms of our simulations,” he explained.
“Mexico was, we thought, the best track in the season. And we were performing well. Brazil was right there, like with Austin, but came in better than we thought.
“Abu Dhabi, in the table of doom, is pretty much in the middle. It’s not Spa or Monza. So if we correlate with the table of doom, it means we understand we are going to.
“If we outperform the table of doom I’m obviously happy, but also questioning what happened to getting it right with our forecasts. So the truth is, I don’t know where we are lacking – straight-line speed, particularly against the Red Bull when they turn on the engine.
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“But I would never say we are not in the mix but rationally, probably not right there.”
With both Ferrari’s starting Sunday’s race ahead of the Mercedes, it will most likely take a DNF from either Carlos Sainz or Charles Leclerc for Mercedes to have a real shot at leapfrogging them in the championship, but as Toto Wolff has said, never say never.
Lewis Hamilton will be desperately hunting for his first win of the season as he looks to prevent his first ever winless season in Formula 1.