Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that its System 1 outcomes because the summer time break have been impacted by its automobile being extra “on the sting.”
The German producer had gone into the shutdown interval buoyed by three victories in 4 races – with George Russell having triumphed in Austria and Lewis Hamilton including wins in Britain and Belgium.
However since F1 returned to motion within the Netherlands, Mercedes has had a a lot tougher time – with its finest consequence being a fifth place for Hamilton finally weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
The crew doesn’t absolutely perceive why issues have been tougher in latest weeks, however is conscious that the traits of its W15 do seem to have modified.
“I feel we’re capable of extract a single lap, which is in precept excellent news,” defined Wolff. “However then the steadiness isn’t in a approach ok to maintain the tyres completely satisfied for a race.
“That has been the subject since Zandvoort. It has been extra on the sting, tougher to search out the proper steadiness.”
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photograph by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Pictures
One potential explanation for the issue may very well be associated to the brand new flooring that it launched on the Belgian GP, however was deserted that weekend due to doubts over it.
The squad has continued to analyse it through the Zandvoort and Monza weekends, and is satisfied that it’s offering the additional downforce hoped for.
Nonetheless, it’s not but positive if the brand new design has contributed to the W15 having a much less excellent steadiness, which is making Russell and Hamilton much less comfy within the automobile.
Talking within the crew’s common post-weekend video debrief, Mercedes head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin stated there remained some query marks concerning the flooring.
“During the last three races, we’ve finished numerous compares of the packages and principally evaluating the ground,” he stated. “What we’re assured in is that it’s producing the load that we anticipate.
“The tougher query that we have to reply is: is there something refined within the dealing with traits that this package deal may be doing that we haven’t anticipated?”
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Shovlin stated that discovering a solution on the scenario shouldn’t be easy, as a result of automobile steadiness isn’t constant on totally different tracks.
“It’s fairly troublesome to evaluate, as a result of the automobile will carry out otherwise track-to-track, some tracks it’s been working very effectively. Different circuits we’ve struggled with the steadiness of the automobile whatever the aerodynamic spec.
“It could be that’s simply the traditional variation from track-to-track, however that’s what we’re going to be over the subsequent few days. On high of that there are different updates that we’re bringing into the system.
“There’s quite a bit for us to think about, however we do have lots of information now, and we are able to go off and use the subsequent few days to study what we are able to from that.”
