Why splitting car specifications is a 'no-brainer' for Mercedes at the Singapore Grand Prix

Mercedes have committed to an unusual strategy for the Singapore Grand Prix, as it will field its two W17s with completely different aero packages over what will already be a hectic and complicated Sprint weekend.

While Kimi Antonelli will stick with the updates as seen in Sepang last weekend, George Russell will revert to the previous version, thus giving the team a direct back-to-back comparison over all three days of the event.

Mercedes have taken this approach because the results produced by the new updates, which were introduced in Malaysia, proved to be inconclusive.

It was hardly a disaster, given that Antonelli finished second and Russell was destined for the podium before his late retirement, but the feeling in the camp was that it didn’t produce the lap time benefits anticipated.

Russell floated the idea of using Singapore as a back-to-back test even before the Sepang race, but his retirement guaranteed him a power unit grid penalty for this weekend, making the decision an obvious one.

“I instigated the conversation prior to the race on Sunday,” he said on Thursday's media day in Singapore. “So when the failure happened, it was kind of a no-brainer, because we were kind of 50-50 about it pre-race. And I was more in favour to do it, and that was even pre-race. Whereas now it is a total no-brainer.”

Russell may well find out that he has drawn the short straw, but it’s a risk that he is willing to take and he sees a bigger picture of helping the team to draw firm conclusions about the new parts.

“I think for any team, it's always very important,” he said. “However, there's no signs telling us the upgrade was not working, and we know the car we had in Baku was the same car as we had in Budapest and Zandvoort, and in Baku we were on pole by eight-tenths, and in Budapest, we were four-tenths off the pace.

“So those fluctuations, even with a consistent car and your rivals with the same car, are drastic. You have a fluctuation plus or minus one second, it can be, that delta. So we're pretty confident it's Malaysia specific.

“When you look at the pace of Red Bull as well, they clearly over performed compared to where they've been this season compared to all of the other teams, and actually, when you look at our pace compared to McLaren and Ferrari, it wasn't too dissimilar. It wasn't like massively out of bed.

“So this engine penalty this weekend has just given a good opportunity to roll back. It's the car that I won in Baku with – so let's see.”

In addition to the parts seen in Sepang, Antonelli also has a new front wing in Singapore, which in effect completes the update package but it remains to be seen whether or not that’s the key that makes it come alive.

The Italian acknowledges that last weekend the updates didn’t produce the expected gains in Malaysia.

“Of course, the numbers are a different story in Sepang,” said the Italian. “But I think Sepang, it was a bit of an outlier because the tarmac was just so rough. Actually, in some corners we were missing tarmac, and also it was so hot. We had at times 60-plus degree track temperatures, so I think was a bit of an outlier.

“And definitely I feel like this weekend is going to be a bit more representative. Cooler temperatures, the tarmac is in a much better state, and I think it's going to be a very good test, because in Sepang we struggled a lot in low-speed, and here we have a lot of low-speed.

“So let's see how it's going to be. And plus, we'll have two different cars on two different packages. So that is going to be interesting to see, we're going to have a straight comparison on that side.”

Antonelli has no qualms about sticking with the updates, and believes Singapore will get the best out of them.

“Well, I didn't really get to decide,” he said. “It was it was mainly the team that decided to go back on the old package. As I said before, we think it was it was an outlier, and we do believe the new package can work well. It's just a matter of trying to put the car in the right window, and understand it more.

“And this weekend, I think, is a good example. It's going to be a good opportunity to see and to compare the two packages. And because we know the old one, we've known it for ages, we know how to set up the car around that package. We know it works really well, and is really fast in these kinds of tracks. And we really want to understand.

“On the other hand, this new package and trying to really strike the maximum out of it, because the team has done a tremendous job. They've put in so much work on this new package, and it would be just a shame to write it off so early.

“So I feel like I'm quite comfortable on keeping it – and actually I really want to help the team out to understand it more, and as I said before try to extract the potential.”