The break represents a great opportunity to prepare for the end of the season. As explained by James Allison, Mercedes will be working on two interconnected fronts: the excessive sensitivity of the W15, especially in hot conditions or on tracks requiring a lot of traction, and the last “substantial” technical update package that will debut in Austin.
After a very difficult Friday, Mercedes managed to secure a fourth and a sixth position in Singapore, a generally positive result compared to recent weekends. Additionally, Ferrari’s issues on Saturday allowed them to gain a few spots on the grid, but keeping both Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc behind was not an easy task.
Mercedes came from two very tough practice sessions, struggling with understeer and lack of traction. The setup changes helped make the car more effective in qualifying, but there were still big questions over long runs. The attempt to diversify strategy with Lewis Hamilton, although a logical gamble, didn’t work and left the Brit defending throughout the race.
On the other hand, with a more straightforward race strategy, George Russell managed to keep both Ferraris behind him, although he could do little against Piastri, who had a much faster and more consistent car. However, Russell’s defense against Charles Leclerc in the final laps brings up an interesting topic: the W15’s sensitivity, especially on tracks with hot asphalt or many traction zones.
“First of all, I think we must credit George for managing the tires in the final part of the race, but also HPP [Mercedes’ PU division], who gave him all the right instructions for the Power Unit in those last laps. Moreover, Charlea Leclerc had used up his tires trying to close the gap to George,” explained James Allison about Russell’s defense in the final laps of the Marina Bay Grand Prix.
While it’s true that George Russell made traction a strength in his resistance against the Ferrari driver, it’s also true that, looking at the entire weekend, including qualifying, the W15 always seemed on the edge with a narrow performance window. This is something already discussed on Motorsport.com, but this tendency to be constantly at the limit has significant implications, particularly in managing temperatures.
As observed earlier in the season, when temperatures are very high, the W15 tends to show more limitations. The only “hot” races where it managed to handle the situation were mid-season and in Hungary, although Ferrari was struggling with bouncing issues during that period, which heavily impacted their performance. This sensitivity is not a new issue, but one Mercedes has been dealing with for a long time: despite several upcoming night races, there will still be hot events where managing rear-end temperatures will be crucial.
Not surprisingly, this excessive sensitivity to temperature and asphalt conditions is one of the key areas Mercedes will focus on during the break before arriving in Austin, where the last technical update package for the W15 will debut.
“During the break, we will try to understand how to mitigate what slowed us down last weekend, figuring out how to make the tires work better on these circuits where overheating is an issue,” James Allison explained during the usual weekend analysis video.
Many teams will bring updates to their cars in the United States, but within the Brackley squad, the hope is that this package will help take a meaningful step forward, especially considering that the floor introduced in Spa did not deliver the expected results, leaving Mercedes behind its rivals.
Overall, Mercedes has high hopes for the Austin race, not only because of past performances, as they have often been competitive on that track in previous years. It’s no coincidence that the engineers chose to have Hamilton serve his Power Unit penalty in Azerbaijan, even though overtaking in Baku isn’t easy: the idea was to take the penalty early, so they could arrive in Austin with a relatively fresh engine.
“We will also be doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work to bring our last update package. We have substantial new features coming to the car in Austin, like a new bodywork, and we hope it will allow us to have a good weekend there. So, on one hand, we need to work on producing the package, but we will also use the break to prepare for the final races of the year,” added the Mercedes technical director.
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