F1 Russian Grand Prix: Ericsson: Fond Sochi memories despite Caterham demise

For Russia’s debut race at Sochi past year Pirelli opted for a conservative choice with its rubber by selecting the soft and medium compounds.

“I’m not backing down and in my mind it’s not over yet”, he is quoted as saying by BBC Sport.

Valtteri Bottas did finish inside the top three in Russian Federation past year, and believes the FW37 should suit their auto this weekend as well, and expects to be close to the pace of the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team.

This weekend F1 returns to Sochi, the scene of Mercedes’ first constructors’ championship triumph a year ago after Lewis Hamilton led home a one-two.

Having suffered his first retirement of the season at Singapore during a hard weekend for Mercedes, Hamilton hit back strongly at the Japanese GP as he came from second on the grid to beat team-mate Nico Rosberg to victory. While we take satisfaction from these successes, however, we do not lose sight of our failures.

And Wolff has urged Mercedes not to get complacent as it attempts to wrap up the constructors’ title in Sochi. A repeat performance in Sochi would be fantastic and this is absolutely the target – but we are under no illusions that it will come easy. Nico Rosberg, who damaged his front right tyre with a lockup on Lap 1, made a pitstop at the end of the first lap and then finished the 53 lap race without making another stop.

“This was a tricky weekend last season, with a new circuit to learn and fresh tarmac which produced slightly unusual behavior from the tires”, Mercedes executive technical director Paddy Lowe said. “The track has quite a wide variety of different corners, so it makes for a good all-round test for the tyres, with the drivers able to benefit from the extra speed of the supersoft this year”. “We look forward to seeing our Russian fans out in force again and hope to put on a good show”.