“Oh God, how could we have been so stupid not to see the way forward sooner?” James Allison, Mercedes technical director, had not been particularly kind to himself after George Russell’s somewhat surprising pole position in Canada.
It seemed like an isolated case, but it was simply the beginning of a new cycle, covered only by the superiority of the McLaren MCL38 which, however, did not reap all that it had sown. And so Russell deserved the victory in the Austrian GP and Mercedes deserved the entire front row in the British GP with George on pole, followed by Lewis Hamilton.
Mercedes W15: here’s the strange curvature that appeared at the Austrian GP
Picture of: George Piola
Spielberg had been the subject of discussion for the appearance of a bulge on the upper part of the body near the vanity panel, that is, the part of the bodywork that can be removed to allow mechanics to work on the internal elements of the front suspension.
Some “prankster” from the Brackley team thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of the great heat in the Red Bull Ring basin to say that the cover hid an air vent for cooling the cockpit that the FIA had foreseen for the hottest GPs, but since the temperature hadn’t exceeded 29 degrees it hadn’t been necessary to open the ducting which, in reality, had never been seen.
It was, instead, a decoy, because the curvature was present on the W15 also at Silverstone where the protagonist would certainly not have been the heat. It was clear that it was a… lie and our George Piolapitlane hound, spent a lot of time waiting for a mechanic from the Brackley team to open the carbon panel to get his hands on the chassis cockpit.
Mercedes mechanic tries not to show what’s under the W15’s cockpit cover
Picture of: George Piola
The image shows us a front suspension with a kinematic element that has a greater protrusion than what we were used to, so much so as to require a more shaped vanity panel which, certainly, does not offer an advantage in the search for maximum aerodynamic efficiency, but, evidently, allows for front adjustments thanks to which the W15 can allow itself a ride height closer to the asphalt, gaining that aerodynamic load that in Brackley they saw in the wind tunnel, but not on the track.
James Allison was even ready to resign after such a disappointing W15, but the ex-Ferrari engineer, once he was refused an early exit, found the right solution to transform the “ugly duckling” into what risks becoming a… swan.
What is the secret in the Mercedes suspension well? What did the engineers in Brackley find to allow George and Lewis to find unexpected potential in the W15? The black and silver car was the one that suffered from “hopping”, the disease that has contagiously attacked Ferrari with the latest evolution, while with the latest solutions Mercedes seems to have become immune…
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