The physique language of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell as they climbed up the steps in the back of their engineering vans after the Belgian Grand Prix’s second observe session stated all the pieces.
Heads wanting down and shoulders drooped, as they spiralled their approach up, it was clear that this had been a nasty day for Mercedes.
Having arrived in Belgium with a touch of confidence that Spa-Francorchamps’ observe traits and an upgraded flooring may get the group again within the battle on the entrance, Mercedes had a harsh actuality examine on the primary day of operating.
The W15 was off the tempo, a couple of second adrift of the benchmark. Worse than that, the automobile didn’t really feel good in any respect.
As Hamilton summed as much as the media afterward: “It was a reasonably unhealthy day. I do not know what to say. Clearly, it has been feeling nice up to now couple of races, and it simply felt utterly totally different.”
The most important situation that Mercedes confronted was that there was no actually apparent rationalization as to what was happening.
In first observe, the group had struggled within the twisty sector two in comparison with McLaren and Purple Bull, so, for FP2, it elected to shift its focus to bias its efficiency extra there.
However all that served to do was to hamper its straightline velocity efficiency within the first and third sectors – with knowledge suggesting it was dropping as much as 0.9 seconds on the straights alone.
Having had such a nailed-on stability at current races, which had proved crucial to pushes to podiums and wins, Mercedes discovered itself in a very totally different spot the place it didn’t have an apparent rationalization for what had gone unsuitable.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W15
Picture by: Erik Junius
As engineering work continued into the evening at its Brackley manufacturing unit, and the simulator ran on into the early hours, the conclusion was that for the remainder of the Belgian GP weekend it wanted to return to what it knew.
That meant first abandoning the brand new flooring it had introduced, as a result of it couldn’t be completely positive that there was not some unintended aero or stability consequence that had been launched from its operating.
Plus, Mercedes got here to the conclusion that it wanted to roll again on some mechanical settings it had opted for to attempt to extract extra from the automobile and deal higher with the high-speed sections at Spa.
As group principal Toto Wolff defined: “On Friday we weren’t aggressive. However there wasn’t a transparent route on what it was. And truthfully, I need to admit that the in a single day work that was executed from Friday to Saturday in Brackley, within the sim, and likewise right here on the engineering aspect was the important thing.
“We modified lots for Friday. It was a mechanical non-alignment of what we thought the automobile would do. So, we remedied it.”
The modifications, mechanical set-up tweaks and going again to the previous flooring, put the W15 again within the comfortable place it had been on the high-speed Silverstone – but it surely was solely the dry operating on Sunday that highlighted that.
And simply because the British GP had uncovered how the type of the highest groups can fluctuate primarily based on the climate, so too did the efficiency swing between Spa’s Saturday rain and Sunday’s sunshine – the place Mercedes had the sting.
George Russell, Mercedes-AMG F1 Workforce, 1st place, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 Workforce, 2nd place, pour champagne over the Mercedes AMG podium delegate
Picture by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Photos
As Hamilton stated after the race: “It was actually evening and day totally different immediately. On Friday, it was fairly disastrous for each of us and we have been actually scuffling with stability.
“After which immediately, the automobile got here alive, and I used to be actually stunned to, firstly, get into the lead after which be pulling away from everybody.”
George Russell, who completed first on the highway however would later be disqualified for his automobile being underweight, was at pains to clarify that Mercedes’ transformation was merely in regards to the group having the ability to get its automobile in the proper working window.
And that’s the reason he has no doubts that the brand new flooring that was deserted after Friday will likely be again.
“We have got a number of issues we are able to mess around with, and I feel we simply had it within the unsuitable window on Friday,” he stated.
“We clearly reversed on the ground as a result of we simply wished to rule that out as nicely. However I’ve acquired little doubt that in Zandvoort we’ll be returning to the brand new aero bundle and getting the automobile in a barely totally different window mechanically.”
