Since the first free practice session, both Mercedes drivers have strongly complained about the behavior of the car in the fastest areas of the track, mainly linked to the lack of aerodynamic load and the constant bouncing.
Over the course of the weekend, the engineers tested numerous setups to try to reduce this phenomenon, also exchanging the settings between the two drivers in order to have better interpretations. Although, in fact, from Thursday to Friday the team was able to partially resolve these problems, on the other hand they were never actually totally eliminated, so much so that both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton suffered from them in qualifying.
This continuous bouncing was especially felt in the snake sequence and with the rear part of the car, continuously shifting the balance between the front and rear, an aspect that actually made the single-seater rather unstable. On the contrary, the RB20, with its extremely stable aerodynamic platform, made that section its strong point throughout the weekend, recording higher speeds than its rivals.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
To try to regain some confidence and greater support from the rear of the W15, Hamilton then switched during FP3 to a more loaded wing, which however had a negative impact on top speed, so much so that in view of qualifying he returned on the most exhausting solution used in Thursday's free practice.
Russell then achieved a seventh place which did not leave a smile on the faces of the Mercedes men, however obtained on used rubber in the first attempt of Q3. In fact, Mercedes had only appeared in qualifying with 4 sets of new softs, one less than Ferrari, McLaren and Aston, who had instead been more conservative in FP3, saving a set. Although the compound used also proved to be able to hold up well, the Englishman was not able to complete his second lap in the final heat due to an error in turn 10, due precisely to the contact of the surface with the asphalt which it unbalanced the car.
“My first lap with the used tire was really positive. I felt really strong this weekend. I put on the new tyre, I gained two tenths in turn 9 and then I lost it in turn 10. So I think the fourth position was the true potential of the car today”, said the Briton, who then explained how, in reality, everything was caused by the fact that he tried to go through Turn 9 with a higher speed than what he had done previously in the weekend .
Focus on the telemetry comparison between Russell and Verstappen in the first sector: note the difference in the fastest section, where Mercedes suffers from bouncing and lack of load
Photo by: Gianluca D'Alessandro
In fact, Mercedes always suffered in that stretch, but Russell still tried to give something more, in the hope that the car would give him the necessary support to at least snatch a position in the second row.
“I think the track evolves, you go through the corners faster, the car gets closer to the ground, the rebound probably increases. And this was my problem in today's qualifying. I couldn't get through the high speed zone without touching the asphalt. And that's why I lost the car in turn 10. The car hit the ground and I ran wide because I was going through the corner maybe 10 km/h faster than I have at any other point in this weekend”, Russell then added, explaining how much he struggled in that stretch.
The underlying problem is that, as we had already seen in Bahrain, the W15 lacks aerodynamic load and this is especially evident in the faster and more prolonged corners where a lot of support and a stable platform is needed, something that the drivers have never done mystery at this start of the championship. To try to recover that load, the engineers tried to lower the car, however triggering the bouncing: if in Sakhir this phenomenon had a lesser impact, in Jeddah it instead emerged more decisively, taking away confidence in the first half-time.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
“It wasn't a good qualifying at all,” explained Hamilton, who ended his day behind his teammate, but with completely different feelings. While Russell found himself more comfortable with the car, Hamilton had to try different solutions to find a more convincing feeling, including a more powerful rear wing which, however, was later set aside given the negative impact on speed tip.
“Yesterday I struggled a lot with the car, while in FP3 I was much happier, with a slightly larger wing, but I lost two tenths on the straight. But I recovered a bit of stability and I was much, much happier and I thought I could be able to do it in qualifying too. But unfortunately the bounces are still present. That's why we were so slow in the first sector”, explained the seven-time world champion, who had already complained about the same problem last year.
Mercedes has tried various solutions to solve the bouncing problem but, although it was attenuated from Thursday to Friday, it is a phenomenon that the team is still unable to keep completely under control when it lowers the car. “We tried to change all the settings. We can't get rid of it. It's hard to explain, we had a bit of a rebound in Bahrain, but not as intense as here,” added Hamilton, although it's important to mention that in Sakhir the team had been forced to raise the bottom to avoid excessive wear of the skate.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
“The first sector is very high speed, you're in yaw and there's a lot of lateral load, and the bounces upset the car quite a lot. If you think about when the car goes up and down in the rear, the balance shifts back and forth. If you do it at 250 km/h, correcting it every time is really difficult. That's what we're working for. We have to fix things, it's like it's happened three years in a row, we have to improve the situation.”
Hamilton admitted that despite the constant bounces, the W15 has more potential than its predecessor. “I think if you take away this problem, the car is really much better than last year, in every area. It's just that it's causing us some really big problems. In the second or third sector we were much closer, and we're able to be so in all the other corners, but the first half time is the same as last year.”
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