Formula 1’s Chief Technical Officer of Motorsports Pat Symonds believes that Mercedes’ previous advantage in the sport is to blame for some of its current shortcomings.
Mercedes leads the Constructors’ Championship but has yet to win in 2018, its three-race drought the longest it has gone without a victory in the hybrid era.
Symonds, though, reckons Mercedes, dominant from 2014 to 2016, is paying the price for its previous advantage, pointing to its tyre usage and strategic calls, with Ferrari and Red Bull now having closed the gap.
“If you look back at the recent history of Mercedes, one thing that they've never quite got on top of is tyre management,” said Symonds, reflecting on the opening trio of events in Formula 1's pre-Azerbaijan GP guide.
“We saw it a lot in the pre-hybrid era when they didn't have the engine advantage they enjoy now.
“Then, if they didn't get their tyre quite right, they didn't have great races. I think things were masked from 2014 to 2016, simply because they had this big power advantage.
“Last year we started to hear the car being called a ‘diva'. What's that about? In my mind, the difference in performance you get from one weekend to the next is not really explainable in aerodynamics or vehicle dynamics or anything like that.
“With an aero/chassis package, getting your set up just right might mean you're hoping to pick up a tenth or so from Friday to Saturday qualifying.
“But when you get a big shift, when suddenly you're not competitive, it has to be down to tyres. And if it's down to tyres it's down to not using them well and not getting the temperatures correct.
“They’re still strong and still very, very capable of winning the title this year but perhaps more than Ferrari, they are going to have races where they don't get their tyres into the right working range and therefore they will not be as competitive as they should be.
“Strategically they've also had troubles. When you have a fast car and you're controlling the race, the strategy comes to you. But recently with Mercedes we've seen some… I won't call them wrong, but I would say some imperfect strategy calls.
“I think that's because there may have been imperfect calls before but with such a performance advantage you don't really see them.”
Ferrari strong
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Symonds, who worked for Benetton/Renault, Virgin/Marussia and Williams before joining F1's technical team, added that Ferrari is in its strongest position for some time, and reckons its strategies show it is prioritising the Drivers’ title over the Constructors’ race.
“They are looking stronger than they've looked for many years and I think they've got every chance of a really good season,” he said.
“I think they need to decide how they're going to go racing. I think that the way they used [Kimi] Räikkönen in China was unfortunate – leaving him out for so long and trying to slow down other cars. And to be honest, it didn't really work. By the time his rivals reached him, his tyres were shot and they could easily overtake, so it wasn't a great strategic decision.
“I don't think that's the way to get a Constructors' Championship. They obviously feel that the Drivers' Championship is more important, and they've made their decision as to where that will go.”
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