Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin: “It looks like the car has potential for a decent result here”

After a three-year break away from the Marina Bay Circuit, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team Trackside Engineer director Andrew Shovlin has admitted to the unpredictable nature of the circuit and the set-up proving difficult for the team to be at top of their game, as the opening day of the Singapore Grand Prix comes to a close.

“It’s great to finally be back in Singapore, but it’s a difficult circuit and the three-year break since we were here last doesn’t help in terms of understanding where to go on setup or knowing how the tyres are going to behave.”

The W13, whilst still troublesome in places, looked considerably better than it has done for the majority of the season during the opening day at Singapore; however, Shovlin still is wary of the work the team have to do overnight to ensure the car is functioning at peak performance ahead of Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race.

“We’ve had a pretty clean couple of sessions, especially compared to Red Bull and Ferrari who looked to have a few issues, but we have managed to get through the majority of the planned work. The car was a bit better balanced in the first session and seemed easier to put the times in.

“In the second session we picked up a bit more locking and neither driver got a particularly clean lap in, so hopefully we’ll be able to make a bit of a step there overnight.”

Despite unforeseen work having to go ahead overnight with a limited supply of assets, Shovlin and the rest of the Brackley-based team are happy with their overall performance and remain confident that the rest of the Grand Prix weekend will be a positive one.

“Overall, though, it’s been a decent start to the weekend and it looks like the car has potential for a decent result here.”