The first six races of the Mercedes they denoted as the W15 is a single-seater in clear difficulty. Now there F1 has faced different types of circuits, and more or less in each of these, the daughter car of James Allison failed to perform as expected Brackley. The car has several flaws, especially in high-speed corners, where it tends to slide a lot, this for a very light rear.
TO You love me we have seen some glimmers, also because a part of the update has been brought that will arrive completely Imola next weekend. Let’s say that the Mercedes he opted for the same technical strategy he had in mind Ferraribut then the Stable of the Horse he preferred to postpone everything to the home event on the banks of the Santerno, but already today he showed the public the version EVO from the SF–24 with a session of testlater officially passed off as filming dayon the track of Fiorano.
Returning to Silver Arrows: Hamilton he managed to finish sixth in Florida, also fighting with Perez after the pit stop. Both were fitted with medium tyres, because Lewis opted for the reverse strategy, while Checo he put the yellows back into the regime Safety Char after a short stint with the hard tires and with which he wasn’t happy at all. There W15 of the English sample stood up to comparison with the RB20 of the Mexican, but this clearly cannot make a person jump for joy Toto Wolff and good company.
F1, Mercedes: from Imola to Barcelona for a new W15?
In home Mercedes we rely on the updates that are gradually arriving on the two cars. It’s as clear as the gap with Red Bull, Ferrari And McLaren is still very important, and also according to the words of Wolff over the weekend at You love mewhen he said that neither Newey would be able to solve their current problems, it makes us understand that Brackley is not having a good time.
Also to Imola one is expected W15 a bit difficult: the track has lots of medium-speed corners, some even with high mileages like the Piratella or the entrance to the Villeneuverather than the output of Tambourine, and these may not benefit the characteristics of a poorly built single-seater. The focus then of the team is turned to the next challenges, i.e Monte Carlo, Canada And Barcelonatracks with different characteristics but which could hide machine problems.
Or rather, the first two are a little easier to interpret: a Monk we always travel very loaded, high speed points practically do not exist except in Tunnel and at Swimming poolsbut otherwise these are very slow curves and could therefore allow the W15 to suffer much less from the gap with the three top team mentioned above, also because those updates will arrive in Imola that should improve performance.
F1, Mercedes, develop the W15 to make sense of 2024
Also the Canadian track of Montreal could benefit the characteristics of the Mercedes W15: a bit like Monzain Quebec we will have many straights divided by medium speed chicanes, and therefore a working range that is perhaps easier to find for a single-seater which has in any case proven to be strong on the straight, as seen above Jeddahhe knows something about it McLaren Of Plates.
The real problem should be represented by the type of track we will have Barcelona: with the absence of the last one too chicanethe decidedly slow points have effectively disappeared, and the many high-speed corners could cause the silver and black colored car to suffer considerably.
A definitive way out must be worked out, and this can only be done through developments, as supported by Brackley circles in the last few days after sixth place in Hamilton to You love me: “We’re working on it – said Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ head of track engineering -. On the track we will try to optimize what we have managed to do as best we can, collecting as many points as possible in the meantime.”
In essence, a continuous test: this is what it will do Mercedes coming soon, also because the year seems to have already been wasted, a bit along the lines of what we saw last year, when after the Bahrain, Toto Wolff he said the project had to be thrown away. Well, this year it doesn’t seem to be like that as far as the statements of the protagonists are concerned, but seeing the results on the track we are very close. So many tests to get back on the right path but which at the moment still seems very, very far away.
Author: Andrea Bovone
Images: Mercedes AMG F1 Team – FUnoAT
