Mercedes might be going again to a earlier spec W15 flooring in Baku because the staff attempt to discover the reason for their post-summer break stoop.
Mercedes went into the F1 2024 summer time shutdown carrying nice momentum after claiming three wins from 4 races, however haven’t been capable of hit these heights because the season resumed, with P5 their finest consequence throughout the Zandvoort and Monza rounds.
Mercedes W15 improve U-turn as ‘query marks’ persist
On the Belgian Grand Prix, Mercedes launched a brand new flooring and diffuser for the W15. The indicators had been constructive there as Lewis Hamilton took the win – in what would have been a Mercedes 1-2 earlier than George Russell was stripped of the win for an underweight automobile – however the efficiency has not been at that degree since.
Mercedes consider the upgrades have elevated the W15’s downforce, although are assessing whether or not the bundle has launched any unintended impacts on the dealing with.
And as a part of the evaluation, Mercedes will revert to the previous flooring for this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
“I feel that there’s plenty of query marks on a number of it,” mentioned Hamilton with reference to Mercedes’ post-summer break dip.
“I feel we’re simply making an attempt to grasp it. It may very well be a lot of issues. It may very well be observe dependent. It may very well be the improve.
“My intestine is telling me it’s most likely the improve, but it surely’s arduous to see the distinction between the 2.
“However we’re going to do this weekend, roll again on a few of it and see whether or not or not we are able to spot it.
“There’s a number of work occurring simply to analyse it, as a result of it actually offers the staff a route of the place they’re getting into improvement, not just for this automobile, for the following yr as properly.”
Russell was offered with Hamilton’s “intestine feeling” that the improve was guilty for Mercedes’ Zandvoort and Monza setbacks, main him to emphasize that the efficiency acquire was not anticipated to be vital with the up to date flooring.
Nonetheless, with the previous flooring returning for Baku, it offers Mercedes readability on what that can supply.
“We’ll see this weekend,” mentioned Russell when requested for his feeling on the influence of the improve.
“The improve wasn’t a considerable efficiency enchancment, and generally you’ve acquired to have a look at issues simply objectively. And we introduced a brand new flooring, we dropped in efficiency, and that was the primary factor that modified.
“We knew the improve wasn’t form of going to set the world on fireplace. It was simply form of one other step within the route that we’ve been pursuing. So reverting again to the form of pre-Spa iteration of flooring, if every part had been to be completely right on paper, it was a small delta.
“So I feel it’s higher the satan you understand generally. We all know what that flooring gives. We all know precisely the place the setup must be. And generally, with a brand new improve, it takes a lot of races to form of study and perceive.”
Nonetheless, Russell doubts Mercedes are going to go from Baku to Singapore armed with a transparent reply on whether or not or not the ground was the place they went improper.
He additionally teased one other improve to return for the W15.
“I don’t suppose, irrespective of the efficiency this weekend, we are going to come away and conclusively say the ground was or was not the issue,” he claimed.
“I feel we’ll simply get by this race weekend, see how we get on and you understand, it’s not going to be too lengthy till we’ve got one other new improve, which is able to change issues as soon as once more.”
Russell additionally believes that the tight nature on the entrance of the Formulation 1 grid – with F1 2024 thus far seeing seven completely different race winners – has been making for extra excessive swings in fortunes when not fairly nailing a race weekend.
“I feel now Formulation 1 is extra aggressive than we’ve seen it for 10 years perhaps, by way of the variety of drivers and groups who can compete for the nice consequence,” he mentioned.
“I feel if we take final yr for instance, if we had been two-tenths off the tempo, you’d end in the identical place. Or in the event you overachieve by a tenth or two, you’d most likely additionally end in the identical place.
“The identical goes for Pink Bull. They may have an off weekend by three-tenths and so they’d nonetheless win the race, and it’ll simply go below the radar.
“So I feel we’ve had two weekends the place we’ve got dipped in kind barely, doubtlessly not fairly nailed a lot of issues, but it surely may have simply swung a distinct route.
“I began third final week [at Monza], was in third in Zandvoort, and if the race had panned out very barely in a different way, may have doubtlessly ended up on the rostrum, and we wouldn’t be speaking about this completely different efficiency.
“So I feel it simply goes to indicate that except you nail your weekends, you’ll be form of punished for it.”
Mercedes sit P4 within the F1 2024 Constructors’ Championship standings forward of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, 115 factors behind Ferrari a place forward.
