Lewis Hamilton revealed that Mercedes are losing “five or six-tenths” on straights at Suzuka.
After a 1-2 result in FP2 on Friday, Mercedes did not manage to stay at the top of the standings on Saturday. Hamilton and Russell finished qualifying in P6 and P8 respectively.
Hamilton admitted that their results at Suzuka were affected by straight-line speed.
“We are losing a lot of time on the straights, but the car has been really good throughout the rest of the lap,” he said.
“My laps were good, I didn’t have any problems. Otherwise, I think we’re losing something like five or six-tenths just on the straights.
“We kind of anticipated that going in [because] we have a bigger wing than all the other guys.”
Russell also highlighted the Silver Arrows’ struggles on straights and stated that the track had “exposed” their weakness.
“We’ve known this year we’ve not had the most efficient car, very draggy, and this is the first high downforce circuit where you have long straights as well.
“Normally when you look at high downforce circuits, the straights are relatively small and there’s not that chance to get those straight line deltas as well.
“I think we’re probably losing seven or eight-tenths to Red Bull in the straights today, and the circuit has exposed that weakness of ours.”
