Mercedes AMG F1 team has consistently failed to understand the new 2022 ground effect car design regulations and deliver a car that can win races for its driver. Despite promises of a “new concept” from Toto Wolff for the W15 2024 challenger, Lewis Hamilton believes the technical team in Brackley have delivered ‘more of the same.’

Asked by Sky F1 how difficult it was to extract the qualifying lap he wanted from the W15 in Jeddah, Hamilton replied: “I mean, it’s similar to previous years I would say.” Lewis went on to complain about the dreaded bouncing again, something which left him exhausted and almost unable to extract himself from his car back in Baku 2022. “It’s something that they’ve not been able to fix. We made some changes overnight and this morning the car felt so much better, I was regaining this confidence again and then when we get to qualifying, it disappears again,” revealed the seven times world champion.

 

 

 

Mercedes blitzed in high speed turns

Further, Hamilton identified during the race in Jeddah, that his car was getting hammered by others over the high speed section of the Saudi track.

“Max is flat through [turns] 6, 7, 8 and the balance is just stable. And that’s what we’re working towards. We’ve got to fix it, it’s three years in a row. We’ve got to get on top of it,” demanded Lewis.

Lewis’ team mate George Russell has been less vocal than Hamilton, “Right now we’re fluctuating in performance quite a lot,” the Briton explained. “We’re seeing potential in the car, but unfortunately these last two weekends we haven’t really shown it when it’s mattered, so we need to understand why that is and what we need to do.”

Someone tasked with solving Mercedes problems is Trackside Performance Engineer, Andrew Shovlin, who explains why the Mercedes struggles in the faster corners.

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“It is very close between ourselves, McLaren, Aston and Ferrari. We just need to be on top of it,” said ‘Shov’ Shovlin.“It’s a few things. One of them was the balance wasn’t great. So those very fast corners, the walls aren’t particularly far away. 

“So the ones where the driver wants a lot of confidence, and quite often we were snapping to oversteer if they really leant on the tyres. And that… you can easily imagine how unsettling that is for the drivers.”

Lewis Hamilton was almost knocked out of Q3 in Jeddah by the rookie driver Oli Bearman. Despite less than an hour driving Carlos Sainz’s car for the weekend, the Ferrari academy man set a time just 0.036 seconds slower than Hamilton in Q2 and so started the race in P11.

At the chequered flag, Hamilton was a forlorn P9 as Bearman on debut held of his late charge on fresher tyres to frustrate the soon to be Ferrari bound Englishman.

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Huge test session for Mercedes

Shovlin accepts the bouncing is worse when the car is on light fuel tanks. “Now, that was a factor in qualifying and the race. In qualifying we were also suffering a bit with the bouncing. Now that was less of a problem in the race. 

“There’s more fuel on the car. You’re going a bit slower. And that seemed to calm down and wasn’t such an issue. And then the big one is we don’t really have enough grip there.”

The Melbourne circuit is not so high speed as last time out in Jeddah, but Mercedes have a huge test session on their hands if F1 analysts are to be believed. Reports are emerging there is a problem with Mercedes simulation tools, which are not giving them the right read for a base setup before they arrive at a track.

Speaking to The Race podcast, experienced F1 expert Ed Straw questions whether Mercedes can even do this. “It depends what the problems trace to because it seems clear there are some limitations with the simulation tools they’re using.

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Problematic tools or data?

“One of the big problems they’ve got is that at certain speeds when the floor is pretty low, it’s not producing the downforce anticipated so the big question is why?,” queried Straw.

TJ13 repeatedly commented over the winter, Mercedes ‘all new’ approach to the W15 was a risky part to take. By starting with a new platform, the data from the past two years which is circuit specific becomes skewed, and its difficult to know whether the data is correct, or the simulation is properly coded.

“It is fundamentally an approach-based thing,” Straw continues. “Is it a tool-based thing or is it the approach hasn’t allowed them to refine the tools because they’ve been working on this ever since the start of the ground-effect era?”

Yet the biggest problem Straw highlights is Mercedes don’t appear to know which problem they are facing.

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Mercedes: ‘Don’t know’

“There’s still something that they’re missing and that ultimately is the key to understanding why Mercedes isn’t solving this. They did think that wasn’t going to be a problem and it was and that for me is the biggest concern.”

As the F1 teams head to Melbourne it will be Mercedes who are concerned more amongst the front runners than anyone else. At turn 7 in Jeddah their car was slower on entry and apex speed than any of the nine other competitors. 

No upgrades are planned for Australia, and the first two practice sessions are now as important as any of the pre-season tests, as Mercedes risk slipping to becoming the fifth quickest team this year.

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