One has to think what about track position? How much can track position affect your race pace even if you have the best race pace by far? Other than Monaco, I can't think of a different circuit which could lead to that issue. Fast race pace doesn't guarantee a good Quali pace though.SiLo wrote:They are focussing on the important parts of the races, where the cars are heavy with fuel and how they look after the tyres. If they can run well with lots of fuel on board, and look after their tyres well, they wouldn't even need to worry about qualifying as they will breeze past people in the race, where the points are won.
It's like they are taking a leaf out of Hamiltons book. Focus on being fastest on Sunday. Saturday will generally take care of itself.
I believe Mercedes will do Quali runs during the last days of Winter Testing. I believe they have come to certain stage where they have ran enough laps trying to trigger a mechanical defect. By the looks of it, the reliability is certainly not an issue.