Bouncing, round trip… and back. The hopping on the straights that bothered Mercedes so much last season and which had then been mitigated at the beginning of 2023 reappeared at the Belgian Grand Prix on the W14s, making the race for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell difficult.
Both Brackley drivers suffered throughout the race from the aerodynamic effect, which on the straights leads the black-clad single-seaters to bounce and therefore have side effects for the entire lap, for the entire race.
Lewis Hamilton, just after the race, was the first to report the problem. “Mercedes doesn’t know what caused the W14 to bounce here at Spa and that’s a concern for me, but we’ll work on the data this week and try to figure out what to do before the next round.”
“To date, I don’t have many answers to give you on that. I know what I want and I’m working towards it. I’m just waiting for the day when we can get it.”
Shortly after, Toto Wolff – Mercedes team principal – also underlined the problem of bouncing. Hamilton, also slowed down by the bouncing of his single-seater, was unable to get close to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari to contend with him for the last step of the podium. George Russell, on the other hand, was the author of a complex race, finishing in sixth place after starting from the eighth spot on the grid.
“The main factor that limited us was the bouncing. The cars were literally bouncing on every straightaway,” explained Wolff.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“Blanchemont was also a corner where Hamilton suffered from that problem, and that’s notoriously easy and flat. So we had bouncing on the straight, the tires got hot under braking and that was a vicious circle.”
“It was the main limiting factor this weekend. It’s frustrating to go on holiday like this. But we need to understand better based on the data in the coming days.”
Wolff, speaking again of the bouncing, said that the introduction of new components to Spa may have been a major factor in the effect’s return. But he also added that the path traced with the latest components to arrive is the right one to pursue in development.
“We need to analyze the data. We’ve done a hard job on the upgrades. The engineers in the wind tunnel and whoever made the components have done a great job.”
“I think the bottom may have been why we had bouncing, but we’ll see that in the data. And maybe there’s something we need to find, because I still believe that the direction we’re going is the right one.”
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