It’s one thing to seize opportunities with the mistakes of others, to get closer to the top. It’s another to arrive at Silverstone, one of the main tracks of Formula 1, with its very fast corners that put all aspects of the car to the test, from aerodynamics to suspension to Power Unit and take the entire front row. A truly great Mercedes closes the qualifying with George Russell in pole position And Lewis Hamilton in second place and shows that many of the problems that the W15 had are gradually disappearing.
W15: cold, low grip, perfect load/efficiency ratio and great driving by Russell
The bitter cold is certainly a friend of the Brackley single-seater, which continues to show itself to be particularly at ease with low temperatures. Just as in low-grip track conditions, as we have had the opportunity to underline several times, when, for example, Wolff’s team found excellent performance in free practice without being able to repeat the same in the official sessions when the track was rubbering up. On the other hand, the result is also the fruit of the great work to widen the operating window of the single-seater, so incredibly narrow at the beginning of the year that it only allowed us to glimpse good performance peaks, with simpler and more linear but more effective aerodynamics, starting from the front wing changewhich gave more consistent performance to the (we can now say) reborn W15.
It will have to be reviewed in the race, because it is difficult to think that Russell and Hamilton will have an easy life even in terms of pace compared to a McLaren and a RedBull that should be superior in the race, but the data from the single lap speak of a Mercedes that is effective both in the fast and slow, with an excellent balance, an ideal relationship between load and efficiency and a perfect George Russell, who is evidently starting to feel the car is more tailored to his needs and is starting to manage to extract all its potential with continuity, staying ahead of someone like Hamilton, never an easy feat. We also compared the lap data between the two standard-bearers of Toto Wolff, and we found that up until Chapel the two were practically tied, but a better lap time at Chapel, Stowe and the final chicane pole position was earned for number 63.
McLaren different from Mercedes but with similar potential, pays for a bad execution
The one who should have some regrets after the Silverstone qualifying is definitely Lando Norris. Pole position was not comfortably within his reach, but the front row was likely, and, with Verstappen in difficulty, having Lewis Hamilton between him and his rival in the standings would have been, even just psychologically, a good help for the British driver from McLaren. The Woking car showed once again excellent potential even on the flying lap, in line with that of Mercedes even if with different strong points. The MCL38 in fact appeared particularly reactive and performing in changes of direction, a sign of a package that reacts slightly better to lateral load transfers. Norris has the best performance, in fact, in all the sections where a sudden change of direction is necessary, and needless to say, the most famous and evident point is the sequence Maggots Becketts Chapel. The team led by Stella and Brown also performed poorly for Oscar Piastri, who was forced to push on the launch lap despite there still being a few seconds available and who ended up running the decisive lap in the exhausts of Sainz’s Ferrari, throwing away the best opportunity. In general, the McLaren still shows a lot of load but also some anomalous difficulties in acceleration, perhaps with an endothermic mapping that thinks about the wet or perhaps with an electrical part that is a bit out of breath on the very long and challenging lap of the English track, with so much high speed and few braking points to recharge.
Everyone competing for victory
Max Verstappen will start alongside Lando Norris, whose performance is practically unjudgeable from a technical point of view given the significant damage to the floor suffered by the Dutch driver with his mistake at the start of the session. Verstappen has however probably obtained the maximum possible, with good performances in the low-speed corners, but suffering from the lack of load resulting from the damage and the loss of balance in the rest of the lap. Seeing the Dutchman’s performance it is clear that Red Bull will also have its say for the victory and this makes the Grand Prix a race with incredibly interesting potential: the two Mercedes will try to win it, perhaps even playing as a team, but they do not have the advantage of the forecast on pace. Behind them the two contenders for the championship start next to each other, with probably the same chances of winning the race, and the threat of rain that according to the forecast appears absolutely concrete. A sensationally explosive and interesting mix that confirms what we noted a few races ago, that is, that Formula 1 2024 is beautiful and must be discovered session after session, but which, it is sad to confirm, Ferrari is not part of it.
SF24’s difficulties in Britain were announced, but they are even worse than expected
The Reds’ crisis on the Silverstone track It’s certainly no surprise. We have already explained at length that the last package of updates, the one in Barcelona, put the aerodynamics in crisis in the high speed curves generating a terrible aerodynamic rebound. The choice, for both pilots, was to return to the pre-Barcelona versionthat is, the Imola specification, which at least minimizes the rebound effect. The problem, of course, is that from Imola to Silverstone the other teams have progressed between setups and updateswhile Ferrari with this forced decision is in fact went back 2 monthsand the result is evident. However, this also gives an idea of how fast Formula 1 is running and why going back is neither an easy nor profitable choice, even when the new does not give the desired result. In this enormous difficulty from the point of view of performance, even the drivers and the management of the sessions are starting to limp, between driving errors and badly managed positions on the track, with a team clearly struggling in all its components and in all its roles. The reality is that what the English call “mood” in Ferrari is very low because the problem is well known, but the solutions are not known, and solving it will not be easy, but it is an urgent matter, because, as we have seen, it is of primary importance to get back on track with development, before accumulating delays that can no longer be filled, and we are not just talking about this season.
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