On the occasion of the last Spanish GP, Mercedes brought a substantial package of updates that seem to have partially solved the problems of the W13 and allowed George Russell to fight with Red Bull and then finish on the third step of the podium.
The leap in performance seen in Barcelona has however prompted the managers of the eight-time world champion team to preach caution in view of the next round in Monaco.
“We didn’t have a good pace in the more driven sectors due to the overheating of the tires,” said Toto Wolff. “Maybe in Monaco the situation could be different, but this track has never been too good for us in the past”.
“Anyway I’m curious to see how this track will go, but my expectations for Monaco are lower than any other circuit. I can’t explain why in scientific terms, but it will be another appointment that we will need to learn and to be able to get back into the game “.
The skepticism at Mercedes is the result of what we saw last weekend in Barcelona in the last sector of the track.
The performance achieved by the single-seaters in the third sector has often provided a good indicator of the potential that would be seen in Monte Carlo because the nature of the medium / low speed corners and the traction zones are similar.
In the ranking of the fastest cars in this sector in qualifying for the Spanish GP, Mercedes was only fifth.
Ferrari 27”336
Red Bull 27”411
Alfa Romeo 27 ” 443
Haas 27”561
Mercedes 27”698
McLaren 27”768
Alpine 27”896
AlfaTauri 27”984
Aston Martin 28 ” 197
Williams 28 ” 586
However, one factor to take into account in this analysis is that Mercedes did not appear to be using the tires throughout the entire lap. For this reason, peak performance decreased as the cars reached the final corners.
Porpoising has not disappeared
Although Mercedes has made good progress in Spain, the team leaders do not want to deceive themselves and believe that the problems of the W13 are not yet solved.
James Vowles stated that although porpoising has not occurred in Spain, a recurrence of the problem in the future cannot be ruled out.
“We have to moderate our expectations,” he said during the Mercedes’ usual video debriefing after the race. “There is a lot to understand and learn and I think it would be wrong to say porpoising has disappeared. I also believe our rivals are grappling with this phenomenon and I’m sure it will come back ”.
“Now we have to move forward on the basis of the foundations we have laid in Barcelona. We have taken a step in understanding and using what we have put on track. We have to start from these foundations, which we couldn’t do with the car we had in the first five races ”.
George Russell, Mercedes W13, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
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