Lewis Hamilton and George Russell given Mercedes boost by team's unsung hero

27 September 2023 , 19:09

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Mercedes head of race strategy Rosie Wait (Image: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team)

Mercedes junior driver Frederik Vesti has been hailed for the key role he played in helping Lewis Hamilton and George Russell at the Japanese Grand Prix.

It was a difficult weekend overall for the Silver Arrows. In the end, they came away with only a handful of points after Hamilton finished fifth, two places ahead of team-mate Russell.

They might not have even managed that, based on the car's performance in practice. After Friday's running, Hamilton had already ruled himself out of winning the race and both drivers were critical of how the car felt.

As usual, the team put the simulator back at their UK base to good use to help with set-up changes. Mick Schumacher was not on duty this time in that respect, with Formula 2 driver Vesti taking the responsibility.

And the Dane's work has been praised by the team's head of race strategy. In a video reflecting on the Japanese GP, Rosie Wait paid tribute to the effect Vesti's efforts had on the car's improvement as the weekend progressed.

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"The simulator is a real crucial tool to help us develop and set up the car," she said. "Whilst the track is the ultimate location where we go racing, it's got a lot of limitations. We don't have much time during practice but, even if we did, we don't have enough tyres and track evolution and traffic conditions are always changing.

"Unpicking the subtle effect of different set-up changes can be very difficult. That's where the simulator really comes into its own. Once we have understood the limitations of the car in P1 and P2 then the guys back at the factory, together with the simulator drivers, can work through many different set-up options in completely stable conditions.

"Now, obviously, the simulator is not the track. We really rely on the simulator drivers to be able to translate and understand what's going to work well when we get to the race track, and what's more specific to the simulator.

"We are lucky to have two great simulator drivers in Mick and Fred, helping us with this work during races this year. This race it was Fred's turn. We had a very difficult car balance and poor performance on Friday.

"The work that Fred did with the simulator team is a real testament of that turnaround that we saw, particularly with Lewis going from a P14 in practice two up to being able to put it P7 on the grid [in qualifying]. A huge part of that was due to the work that Fred and the simulator team did."

Daniel Moxon