“Spectacular” Red Bull pace worries Mercedes

2015 Singapore Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Mercedes’ team principal Toto Wolff said he is concerned about the pace of rivals Red Bull in Singapore.

Both Red Bulls finished the second practice session ahead of the two Mercedes drivers.

Ricciardo: “We expect the silver cars and the red ones to turn it up”
“We are not happy with the performance today,” said Wolff during today’s FIA press conference. “We haven’t really made the tyre work in a way we should on the one-lap performance, and on the long runs either.”

“We’ve seen some spectacular laps from the Red Bulls. Just need to get our heads together and assess what’s happening.”

However Daniel Ricciardo is sure Mercedes and Ferrari have kept some of their performance in hand.

“Both free practices today were good for us,” he said. “We hit a bit of traffic on the [super-soft tyre] lap, but we know what we have and I think we are looking good for the weekend.”

“We expect the silver cars and the red ones to turn it up tomorrow,” he added, “but hopefully we can keep the pace we showed to get up as far the grid as possible.”

2015 Singapore Grand Prix

    Browse all 2015 Singapore Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    16 comments on ““Spectacular” Red Bull pace worries Mercedes”

    1. oh look, the “Hype Up Your ‘Rivals'” dice has landed on Red Bull this weekend.

      though at least for once it might be legitimate instead of a sad attempt to hype up the race.

    2. ColdFly F1 ( @coldfly ) (@)
      18th September 2015, 17:57

      Now just hoping that the black cars can show up as well.

    3. This is shaping up to be one of the most difficult predictions to make. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull are all doing great.

    4. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! - @omarr-pepper (@)
      18th September 2015, 18:24

      April’s Fool? It’s September Toto!!!

    5. On a day like today I do wonder how Red Bull-Mercedes would go.

      Anyway, strange to see Mercedes struggle (if indeed that’s what we can conclude in 24 hours), they were still pretty good around Hungary and Monaco.

    6. *Audi pace. Fixed that for VW.

      Must be silly season again.

      1. Here’s the link

        1. I dont see why VW will be eager to enter F1 at this stage, just look at Honda, Renault, McLaren even Pirelli. The amount of bad press in F1 is gigantic if you do wrong and with the current regulations it can take anyone years and years for turning your luck around.

          1. well, 2018 entry should surely provide enough time to make a solid engine. Plus Audi has a good expirence in building competitive racing hybrid systems, so why not.

    7. Mercedes always say similar stuff at almost every gp weekend, namely regarding Ferrari, then topping qualifying and having Ferrari destroyed on race day. I highly doubt Mercedes are under any threat tomorrow and on race day.

    8. Red bull is with (old) Renault engine, updte engine is coming

    9. These race teams just cannot help themselves can they? In the midst of a battle to get a 2016 full fat Ferrari engine instead of a 2015 one, Red Bull send this scary message to Marchionne. If Red Bull beat Ferrari on Sunday I predict his idealism will promptly disappear in a puff of smoke.

      It’s cutely insane, and proof positive the teams should never be allowed to run anything but themselves.

    10. I watched Hamilton’s pole of 2014 on f1.com and… it was rubbish. I saw the same today, less understeer but the car is running stiff it is imprecise and rides poorly. The car has lots and lots of pace but like the Monza pole, Lewis can’t get to the apexes. The car is looking as hard to drive as early in the season. I question myself if the poorer handling has anything to do with tyre pressures. The SPA pole was great but from that onwards the handling is not balanced.
      The RBR showed great mechanical grip, surely balanced aero and the drivers are already on the knife-edge, that said maybe there’s not that much in bag for RBR. Kvyat was very aggressive and Ricciardo is Rindt like mesmerizing. Raikkonen is great with the front end and Vettel is great with traction on S3 that said I can’t see them on pole neither win but they look solid.

    11. In the heat of singapore, i think RB will melt like always :)

    Comments are closed.