The optimism has taken hold of Manor, following the evident performance improvement that the team has experienced this season. During the last Grand Prix of China, this improvement was staged in the steering wheel Pascal Wehrlein. Despite the fact that there was no abandonment to the course of the test, Wehrlein managed to outperform his teammate and three other cars from three different teams for to finish in 18th place.
This result adds to the good feelings that the team left in Bahrain, all opposed to the disappointing debut australian. For the German pilot, this is a sign unmistakable that Manor will be able to aspire to obtain points this season, on paths that are most favorable and with a number of drop-outs closer to the normal, as expressed in statements to Motorsport.
“we Can forget Melbourne. In terms of performance, our situation in the last two races has been quite similar to. There are circuits in the us will be better off, and others that will only get worse, but in Australia we were missing, and the last two races have shown our performance”.
“Getting points will be very complicated, but they are possible, and my goal is to add them up. Although in China it was not possible, because the 22 cars finished the race and that doesn’t happen very often. Even so, just ahead of Nasr, Grosjean and Palmer, we were fighting with them. It was a good race and we were able to show our performance. Now we have to improve more and more”.
Wehrlein was one of the drivers that most positions advanced in the first Safety Car to not make her stop, in the process of regaining a top-five, and managed to keep the type during quite a few laps. For the champion of the DTM, however, the departure of the Safety Car meant more of a disadvantage than a benefit to his career.
“The start and the first lap were fun. Happened a lot of things, especially in the first curve. My departure and my first turn was good because I was in the right position. It all went well. But I think the Safety Car did not help, did not come out at the right time. We stayed outside and we had to fight with other cars that had new tires, which is very complicated”.
Now that the car seems to be on par, at least, with teams like Renault or Sauber, Manor working on the details to access the positions of points, and in a season where the strategies of tyres play a vital role in the development of the season, the high wear of his car is a cause of concern for Wehrlein.
“All had problems with the tyre degradation, but ours remains very high. Despite the Safety Car, we made three stops, and Ericsson had a different strategy. At first I was fighting with him and I got ahead. But, when you do a stop less, managed to finish a little ahead of us”.
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