Lewis Hamilton expressed concern in Austin that Mercedes’ latest upgrade brought with it aero problems that could be to blame for the seven-time F1 Drivers’ Champion lap three DNF at Austin. Nevertheless, team principal Toto Wolff says that the team will continue with the upgrade as he feels doesn’t have “a fundamental issue” with their latest package.
Mercedes had looked to be on top of their evolving issues throughout the weekend. The team had an issue with suspension in the Sprint but had that addressed in time for qualifying. As for Race Day, Wolff seemed bemused as to what caused Hamilton’s Lap Three DNF and said that although his driver apologised to the team it is not at all down to Hamilton’s driving.
As Hamilton entered Turn 19 he lost control of the rear of his car which resulted in him spinning off track and being beached in the gravel. Hamilton had said of the incident post-race: “The car started bouncing. The left front started bouncing, and the rear end just came around, the same as George [experienced in qualifying]. In P1 I had the same thing, I had the spin in Turn 3, which is so rare. I have never spun in Turn 3 in all the years I’ve been here. I was just saying about George obviously having the same problem yesterday, he has gone back to the old-spec car and is looking good out there, so maybe there is something with the new upgrade.”
The W15 had various aerodynamic improvements for Austin and the situation looked very promising for the Silver Arrows on Friday when they were one of the quickest on track but qualifying was a different story which led to a challenging race for the team. It is on this point that Wolff says analysis needs to be done as a way to see why the weekend went so upside down for his team.
“I don’t think we have a fundamental issue on the upgrade, very much.” Wolff explained post-race in Austin. “I think it’s more interaction on aero and on mechanical stuff and therefore, I mean, we’re going to continue with the upgrade. It makes no sense to not because there’s a lot of lap time you leave on the table but on the other side you need to be very open minded.
“I mean, George [Russell] drove the July upgrade today because we didn’t have the floor and that seemed really competitive in the race. Having said that, if you’re missing a few tenths in qualifying that makes a big difference because it’s just not as good as it should be. So, it is more that really getting on top of why do we have a car and on Friday it’s by far the quickest…and then on a Saturday it’s transformed.”
As a result of being a triple header and the damage caused to Russell’s car in qualifying, there is every expectation that the team will continue to split their packages in Mexico as Wolff later explained that “the floor needs to go back to the UK and then be repaired for Brazil,”
When referring back to Hamilton’s DNF – Wolff was adamant that no blame fell at the feet of his driver: “Today an incident in that corner that came out of nowhere. He was not pushing. So, where I sit at the moment it’s 100 percent not Lewis’s fault and that is not to say that I’m protecting him. It’s clear. It was gusty. There was a slipstream. How does all of that interact? “
With car sensitivity being a hot topic for discussion at Mercedes once again, it was put to Wolff that this seems to be trait that has been there for a few years and even though the team has made loads of improvements it remains a very stubborn characteristic in the DNA of the car. Therefore, if the team cannot understand it, even if the car remains quick next year the issues may continue.
“I’m always the half-glass, half-full glass person and always sceptical and all these years that was a good I think a good mindset that we had in the organisation to be just ‘it’s just never good enough’ but where we are now clearly this inconsistency that we have with ground-effect cars since two and a half years is something that we just need to get on top of it and I don’t think we’re far away.”
One would think that Wolff would be concerned by the progress that his rivals has made this season but instead he highlighted the fluctuations in performance between the McLarens, Red Bulls and Ferrari and said there is some commonality between them. Even though he doesn’t understand why Mercedes’ weekend turned upside down in Austin, he is not overly worried for the rest of the season.
“I think that this is a data-driven sport and there will be lots of digging between why were we fastest on Friday evening, why not anymore at qualifying the next day, what was the circumstances of that, what does the data say and then today’s performance lots of data collection so that’s why it’s not concerning for me.
“It’s just where we are we’re back to underdog status. We are not back to pre-summer situation. It’s not about coming into the weekend and thinking we’re going to win this but it’s more going into the weekend and thinking at the moment we’re fourth team on the road. How are we turning this around to be third or second and managing our expectations for the rest of the year seeing it very much as it is while it’s going into the weekend and pushing as much as we can. There’s more we need to do the work after the weekend to understand where are we wrong.”
Wolff’s next remarks would no doubt have brought confidence within the fanbase of the Silver Arrows: “I am 100% sure that we will, like we had before the summer, a stable platform. We’re going to come to these conclusions.”
Looking ahead to Mexico, Mercedes expect that this weekend is going to be less confusing. Wolff had said that the team came to Austin and he had two scenarios which he hoped to see that would help them go forward.
“One is everything works and the car is quick because we know what the performance upgrade should bring in theory or it swings the other way around and we’re having inconsistencies in the upgrade and it’s not getting any better but worse and we also have a clear direction.”
Mercedes are guaranteed P4 in the Constructors’ Championship which is far cry from the heady heights of their past. Wolff believes in the upgrade but his star driver seems less than convinced. Should inconsistencies remain in Mexico there may be some very interesting conversations behind the scenes in the coming weeks.
