Mercedes struggled significantly in Texas, where they failed to optimize the performance of the W15 due to several technical issues. The team had brought noteworthy updates to the car for the American Grand Prix, the most prominent being the modification of the flap’s torsion distribution across the width of the profile. This change was aimed at reducing the wake generated by the wing and improving airflow towards the rear of the car, with the theoretical goal of increasing rear downforce. This update was introduced alongside a new suspension shroud.
The engineers in Brackley reprofiled the suspension element to enhance fluid adhesion around the control arm, expanding its operating range while ensuring cleaner airflow towards the rear of the grey and black car. This effort was aimed at improving the overall efficiency of the Formula 1 car. Additionally, a blade-shaped element was added to the edge wing area to boost the airflow extracted from the floor, with the goal of increasing the vortex generated by the endplates and enhancing downforce and aero platform stability.
Another significant update concerned cooling, with outlets near the rear suspension designed to improve airflow and cool internal components. Similarly, the Venturi channel intakes were reprofiled, and the sidepods were updated. The tray lip was moved back to manage the overpressure in the undercut area. As with McLaren, it was challenging to ensure that all these changes functioned correctly, requiring time to understand their full potential. The recent studies conducted by the team should help in this regard.
Mercedes heads to the Mexican Grand Prix, the 20th round of the F1 season, after a period of slight performance decline. In recent race weekends, the team struggled to find the optimal setup or the ideal operating point for their car, unlike Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren. In Texas, they consistently lagged by about two-tenths of a second per sector, putting them behind the main contenders.
From an aerodynamic perspective, Mercedes continues to focus on high vertical downforce, which provides good stability in fast corners and solid overall grip. Their top speeds have remained competitive, offering a positive foundation to build upon. However, one of the critical issues for the W15 has been managing the ride height of the car’s floor. At Austin, the car did not adapt well to the bumps on the track, mainly because they failed to optimize the floor’s performance at a ride height similar to their competitors.
This challenge forced the team to keep the car lower, which led to visible effects such as sparks in the twisty first sector, known as the snake. These small issues added up and ultimately created a gap between Mercedes and the leading teams. In the third sector, they lost around two-tenths in qualifying. While the car showed good traction, it didn’t unlock its full potential, even though they had hit what the team calls the “sweet spot” during Friday practice.
To improve in Mexico, the key will be finding an effective setup that maximizes acceleration in the slower, more technical sections like T3. Typically, Mercedes has room for improvement in these areas, so they will need to focus on generating downforce in S2, possibly by stiffening the suspension elements slightly. Another recurring issue has been understeer, which has appeared more prominently compared to other teams, especially during the race. Both drivers have struggled with corner rotation, and the car’s overall balance has been insufficient.
This has been a limiting factor in the more technical sectors, where the car’s fluidity and stability are essential for maximizing performance. Tire management has also been problematic during the race. Mercedes did not have the pace to match their main competitors, leading them to push the tires harder to close the gap. This increased strain on the compounds caused the tires to overheat, accelerating thermal degradation and bringing the understeer forward, when it had initially seemed likely to appear later in the stint.
This inability to effectively manage temperatures contributed to their overall underperformance, especially in the final phases of the stints when tire degradation became more pronounced. In Mexico, Mercedes will need to work intensively to address these issues. It will be crucial to find a setup that allows the grey and black F1 car to manage its aerodynamic load more efficiently. Better tire management and understeer correction will also be critical to improving both in qualifying and the race.
Traction and top speed are strengths they can rely on to build a solid setup. In Texas, Mercedes introduced several updates, which may have confused the team’s ability to find the optimal setup. According to team principal Toto Wolff, the updates worked as intended, though it is likely that the technical group led by Andrew Shovlin has yet to fully understand how to exploit these changes, which they aim to do in the coming weekend.
Leave a Reply