By Carlo Platella
It’s a Mercedes temporarily in difficulty the one seen after the summer break, with zero podiums collected in two races that contrast with the convincing victories of Silverstone Spa. Both in Zandvoort and Monza the best of the Silver Arrows prevailed over the best of the Ferraris in qualifying, but net of the individual episodes the pace then expressed in the race was not at the same level as its rivals. The updates introduced in Belgium are under scrutiny, but the analyses carried out reinforce the belief that the recent delay of the W15 is attributable elsewhere.
One month of testing
Just before the summer break, Mercedes showed up at Spa with a new floor, the third specification since the start of the year. After the serious problems of bouncing and balance suffered during testing, however, the Star opted to return to the previous version at the end of the day on Friday, then closing the weekend with a temporary one-two before George Russell’s disqualification. The belief in the team is that the competitiveness found during the work in Belgium is not linked to the return to the old specification of the floor, but to the upheaval of the set-up. “We made some drastic changes to recover some of the performance, but we knew it wasn’t the bottom”, analysis in the time of Toto Wolff. “The work done overnight between Friday and Saturday, both in the simulator and here on the track, was the key. It was a mechanical alignment with how we expected the car to behave.”
Mercedes tries again at Zandvoort, carrying out a comparative test between the two versions of the floor before confirming its use for qualifying and the race, then repeating the experiment at Monza. The response is of a perfect correlation between simulation and reality as regards pure aerodynamic load. “In the last three races we have carried out several comparisons between the packages mainly concerning the bottom and we are convinced that it is generating the expected aerodynamic load”, Track Manager Andrew Shoviln’s analysis. “It is important to emphasize that we did not expect a particularly large gain. The package we introduced was relatively small, but we are confident that it will generate that load.”
A driveability problem
Despite the tests carried out, Shovlin’s words reveal the persistence of some doubts about the effectiveness of the new fund: “A more difficult question we have to ask ourselves is: is this package subtly affecting the handling characteristics and we hadn’t anticipated it? It’s quite difficult to verify, because the car behaves differently from track to track. On some circuits it performed very well, while on others we struggled with the balance, regardless of the aerodynamic package.”
The concern at Mercedes is that the latest updates have altered the aerodynamic characteristics of the W15, the effects of which cannot be analysed in a wind tunnel. This is in fact an environment in which it is possible to simulate the aerodynamic behaviour at various postures and heights from the ground, but not the movements of transition from one to another, to which ground effect cars are particularly sensitive. The risk is to rediscover on the track a car with a higher peak of aerodynamic efficiency, but with a different balance and in general a more cantankerous behaviour, difficult for the drivers to interpret. It is a problem that almost all teams have run into during development, with the apparent exception of McLaren.
Window to enlarge
Mercedes’ doubts about the possible side effects of the updates do not rule out the influence of other factors on the Silver Arrows’ recent performances. “The last two races have not been as positive as the previous ones,” Shovlin continues. “It could be due to the normal variability of the trackbut this is what we will analyze in the next few days.” Mercedes simply does not seem to have the same robustness shown by McLaren, capable of playing for victory on every track, unlike the Star that alternates convincing weekends with others more dull. The imperative is to reduce the sensitivity of the W15 to the type of track, asphalt and external conditions, widening its ideal operating window. Something on which the Brackley team has made great strides since the beginning of the season, a job that is not yet finished.
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