Lewis Hamilton and George Russell given Mercedes boost by team’s unsung hero.

Mercedes had a difficult weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix and were forced to limit their damage, but they might not have been able to do so without the help of their reserve driver.

Mercedes young driver Frederik Vesti has been praised for the vital role he played in helping Lewis Hamilton and George Russell at the Japanese Grand Prix.

It was a really tough weekend for the Silver Arrows. In the end, they only gained a few points after Hamilton finished 5th, two places ahead of teammate Russell. They might not even be able to do that, based on how the car performs in real life. After Friday’s race, Hamilton ruled himself out of victory and both drivers criticized the feel of the car.

As usual, the team reused the simulator at the UK facility to facilitate configuration changes. This time Mick Schumacher was not on duty because of that problem and the Vesti Formula 2 driver was responsible.

And the Dane’s work has been praised by the team’s head of racing strategy. In a video looking back at the Japanese GP, Rosie Wait expressed her admiration for Vesti’s efforts in improving the car as the weekend progressed.

“The simulator is a really important tool that helps us develop and configure the vehicle,” she said. “Even though the track was the last place we raced, it had a lot of limitations. We didn’t have a lot of practice time, but even if we had, we didn’t have enough tires and track development racing and traffic conditions are always changing.

Detecting the subtle effects of various configuration changes can be very difficult. This is where the simulator comes into play. Once we understand the car’s limits in P1 and P2, the factory guys along with the simulator drivers can work on a variety of tuning options in completely stable conditions.

Obviously, the simulator is not a racetrack. We really rely on the simulator drivers to be able to translate and understand what’s going to work well when we get to the track and to be more specific about what the simulator is.

“We are fortunate to have two excellent sim racers, Mick and Fred, helping us carry out this work at this year’s races. This race is Fred’s turn. We had trouble balancing the bike and performed poorly on Friday.

“The work that Fred has done with the simulation team is a real testament to the change we have seen, especially when Lewis went from 14th in the second practice session to being able to take him ranked 7th on the rankings]. A huge part of this is due to the work that Fred and the simulation team have done.