Together with Alpine, Mercedes is one of the two big surprises this weekend. Surprise because the fear of the Brackley team itself was that the Barcelona track, extremely different from that of Montreal, could reveal certain problems with the car.
Canada has a rather limited range of corners, with lots of acceleration, heavy braking and medium-low speed corners, which is a very different scenario from that of Barcelona. On Catalan soil, in addition to medium speed corners, there are also long bends where the support and stability of the car counts with the fear of porpoising, an aspect that had already taken Mercedes by surprise in the first rounds of the season, particularly in Saudi Arabia .
Although it is true that Mercedes has always done well in Spain in recent years, on the other hand it is also true that during the last season both the W14 and the W15 have changed their skin in terms of technical philosophy and, in the meantime, The strengths of the car have also changed. This was one of the reasons why there was some hesitation about this weekend.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
The second row, around three tenths from the pole, did not totally raise a smile in the Star garage, but still represents a step forward compared to other events where both the gap and the position on the starting grid allowed us to look at the race with greater negativity.
In fact, it wouldn’t have been the first time that Mercedes performed well in free practice and then struggled markedly during qualifying and the race, when the aggressive mappings used in FP could no longer cover some of the car’s limitations. Another important issue was that of the tire usage window, because on several occasions the W15 proved to be very sensitive to thermal conditions and the variations in grip offered by the tyres.
The topic partially recurred here in Barcelona too according to Lewis Hamilton, especially in qualifying, when the limit was sought. “I still have the feeling of having lost performance in qualifying,” he explained.
“It’s all a question of perspective though. Maybe our opponents have just moved forward, but I definitely feel there was a bit more to extract. But as soon as you start pushing the car, the car doesn’t like that you try to reach that limit, in practice, when you leave a little margin, the car behaves well”.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
“But it’s when you start to really push to try to get something more in terms of lap time, then we really struggle there. And I think it all depends on the tyres. As you’ve seen, in FP1 I lost seven tenths due to a problem with the tire warmers. Then we solved the problem for the following sessions. This puts you in difficulty a bit. But yes, otherwise, the car is good, it’s the best qualifying I’ve done this year.” added the seven-time world champion.
On a track like the Catalan one, the lower set-up chosen by Mercedes helped in terms of top speed, so much so that compared to Lando Norris there is a delta of around 5 km/h in all the various accelerations, not to mention that the W15 also performed well in the high-speed corners such as 9 and 14. On the other hand, the Stella suffered above all from the quicker changes of direction, in particular that of the first sector and the fast 7-8 exchange in the second inter-time, where the largest gaps were recorded together with the length of turn 10.
Hamilton explained that while he potentially had “a bit more performance in the car”, he also felt it was “really on edge” in terms of tire management. On a track like Barcelona, we don’t talk so much about warm-ups, but about tire management throughout the entire lap, given that there are numerous corners that transmit a lot of energy to the tires.
“We still need to make some improvements to the car. But I’m really happy to be in third position. It’s a great starting position, with that long straight leading to Turn 1, there could be some opportunities.”
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
A thought also shared by George Russell, who however also wanted to underline the trust that can now be felt inside the garage. When asked whether Mercedes’ performance in Barcelona may have eliminated fears the progress shown recently may be just another mirage, the Briton replied:
“Well, you can never know 100%. But certainly, in the last three years, this is the moment where we have the most confidence in what we have brought to improve the car. It’s natural that it is like this, we are all gaining experience and we have all been committed to these regulations for three years.”
“And I think we all know what makes a good car in this ground effect era. I think it’s well known how close the top four teams are. Probably in the next races the marginal differences will make a big difference in terms of grid position,” Russell added. In addition to the changes in recent weeks, during this weekend the Stella presented itself with a new lightened bottom which made it possible to save on weight.
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