Fifth and week, with Haas separating them. The two Mercedes do not seem to have started off on the right foot in Hungary, a track that they feared on the eve given certain characteristics that, at least on paper, were not supposed to adapt well to the peculiarities of the W15, starting with the high temperatures.
Looking back over the season, on several occasions the Mercedes engineers had already highlighted a certain tendency to struggle with higher temperatures, as seen for example in Melbourne, only to then find something more with a cooler track. A curious characteristic, especially considering that Mercedes here last year had managed to get the pole position with temperatures exceeding 45 degrees, not far from those at the end of FP2.
It is no coincidence that drivers and teams talked about the look at the end of the day, underlining how the lack of grip felt on Friday was also linked to the temperatures, not only of the asphalt but also of the tyres.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Despite recent successes, which have led to back-to-back victories in Austria and Silverstone, Mercedes were expected to struggle in the hot conditions prevailing in the Hungarian summer.
Hamilton managed to finish 10th in FP1 and improved to seventh in the second session, while his teammate George Russell took fourth and fifth place in Friday’s two free practices.
“It wasn’t a good day today, really. The weather is warm and it’s nice to be here, but we weren’t in good shape today. The car didn’t feel good in terms of set-up, but I think we have an idea why and we’ll work through the night, but it wasn’t the best preparation so far,” Hamilton explained.
After struggling more in FP1, when track temperatures reached almost 60 degrees, Hamilton found greater confidence with a cooler track in the afternoon, without any particular set-up changes being made to the car between the two sessions.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“We made small changes between FP1 and FP2, but the car was basically the same. There is one thing we left that we will change this weekend and probably have to go back to.”
“Otherwise, I think we couldn’t find the pace that the others had today, but the pace on the long run was quite good at the end. It just felt like we couldn’t get the pace right because of the heat,” Hamilton added, mentioning how the performances seemed more convincing on the long run than on the short run, where they showed signs of suffering in the second sector and, more specifically, the medium-high speed sequence, showing themselves to be closer in the low-speed corners.
Mercedes’ track operations manager Andrew Shovlin has previously highlighted that high temperatures tend to put the W15 under greater strain, as James Allison himself mentioned after the Australian Grand Prix to explain the fluctuations in performance even over the same weekend.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
However, he said that the Hungarian weekend represents a good opportunity for the team to work on the team and understand how to find a solution in the medium term.
“We still have a question mark about the performance in hot conditions,” Shovlin said. “It will be very hot on Sunday. That’s what we’re working on. But I wouldn’t put us as favorites.”
“It’s a good circuit to test that. And when you’re trying to focus on one area, if that’s rear overheating, the best place to learn and understand your problems is a circuit that exacerbates that problem, although we would prefer conditions similar to Silverstone. But they’re not, and for us it’s a good place to work on that problem.”
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