The Belgian Grand Prix was a weekend of two faces for Mercedes, and not only in terms of the result. George Russell’s disqualification undoubtedly leaves the glass half-filled, but that’s not the only reason why the weekend was both bright and dark, beyond the victory scored by Lewis Hamilton.
Taking a step back, the words and expressions of the drivers at the end of the second free practice session revealed the same feeling that could be gleaned from the first data from Friday, that is, that the W15 was not at ease in the Ardennes. The Brackley team had arrived in Spa with a little more confidence than in other events, not only because of the podium achieved in Hungary, but also because of the latest technical innovations that should have guaranteed greater load and competitiveness even in the high-speed corners.
There were two main elements behind the difficulties of the W15: the lack of speed and, above all, the balance problems that had pushed the drivers to try and experiment with different setups with the aim of finding more confidence in the car. The one who was in greatest difficulty was Hamilton, who had even tried a wing much more loaded than the “basic” one to find a lost feeling: however, if that specific one guaranteed benefits in the curves, these were not enough to compensate for the time lost on the straights.
The most loaded wing tested by Hamilton on Friday to solve the balance problems
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
After finding a good balance on two such different tracks in what had been the last two races, at Spa Mercedes had instead found itself struggling in the second sector, in an urgent search for an answer to these difficulties. With the arrival of the rain and little time to find the answers to the many questions of Friday, a radical approach was therefore chosen, that is, to go back to those new floor solutions that had debuted in Belgium.
A precise choice, mainly due to two elements: on the one hand the fact that this new surface had introduced some light bouncing, making it more difficult to find the ideal balance on such a complex track where it is always difficult to identify the best aerodynamic compromise. Furthermore, with the arrival of rain in FP3 which most likely would not have allowed to verify the quality of the changes made during the night, it was decided to return to a known base. In fact, between bouncing, new asphalt and little time available in the last free practice to validate the new set-up, there would have been too many unknowns to consider.
Furthermore, by completing the simulation work in Brackley between Friday and Saturday, Mercedes also came to the conclusion that it needed to revise some of the mechanical settings it had started with on Friday to try to extract the best from the technical innovations. “We were not competitive on Friday. But there was no clear direction as to what it was. Honestly, I have to say that the work done overnight between Friday and Saturday in Brackley, in the simulator and also here on track was the key. We changed a lot of things for Friday. It was a mechanical misalignment with what we thought the car would do. So, we fixed that,” Wolff explained.
A line also confirmed by Russell after the race, who also explained part of the reasons why the new floor was discarded at Spa: “We have a lot of things we can play with, and I think we simply got the operating window wrong on Friday. Obviously we changed course because we wanted to exclude that too. But at Zandvoort we will go back to using the new aerodynamic package and take the car into a slightly different window from a mechanical point of view”.
Mercedes W15
Picture of: George Piola
The changes, the mechanical adjustments to the setup and the return to the old floor brought the W15 not only to a known base, but also to a more effective operating window. These 3 factors contributed to restoring competitiveness to the car and, above all, greater confidence in the drivers, to which was then added a wet qualifying in which Hamilton was able to bring out his talent again, hitting a third box that then played a key role in the race.
Overtaking Sergio Perez even before the Eau Rouge at the start, the Briton immediately set off in pursuit of Charles Leclerc, finding the decisive overtaking move already during the third lap, in an extremely aggressive first phase of the race. A key element in strategic terms, because the overtaking came in a key phase of the race, that of the first laps in which the tyre was not yet fully up to temperature and in which many drivers were trying not to force the pace excessively not only to avoid generating graining, a major concern encountered on Friday, but also to reduce degradation on the medium before switching to the hard.
With a reduced DRS zone and the difficulties reported by many drivers in following behind another car in dirty air, if he had not arrived at that stage of the race, it would have been much more difficult for Hamilton to find the overtaking opportunity, also because, analysing the times of the first two stints, the gap in terms of pace with Charles Leclerc was not that wide.
This is precisely the crucial aspect, the fact that there was not that difference in pace to the detriment that had been seen on Friday after free practice: thanks to the setup changes, Mercedes managed to find greater competitiveness on the Ferrari especially in the more driven areas of the second sector, such as the Les Combes chicane or the section of curves 12-13, where instead the W15 had encountered a few more difficulties on Friday.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
That’s not to say Mercedes was necessarily the fastest car on track in absolute terms – Piastri’s final stint, even before Hamilton had caught up with Russell, was indicative of the MCL38’s speed in clean air – but it’s also true that the seven-time world champion was trying to find the best possible balance between pushing to close the gap to Russell and managing the tyre to attempt a final push. But, in a Grand Prix where overtaking proved difficult, track position and effectiveness in key phases of the race played a key role.
The disadvantage on the straights compared to the opponents, even with the most unloaded wing of the two available, remained, but the better overall balance compared to Friday guaranteed not only better performance, but also greater effectiveness for the drivers in managing the tyre. “In the race it was like a day and a night. Friday was quite disastrous for both of us and we struggled with the balance”.
“In the race, however, the car came to life and I was really surprised to be in the lead and then to be able to drop everyone,” Hamilton explained.
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