Mike Elliott, technical director of Mercedes 1, admits that the team doesn’t understand why W13 lost performance the rest of the weekend following a promising Friday at the F1 Miami Grand Prix.
In the second free run, George Russell set the fastest time and Lewis Hamilton set the fourth fastest time. Mercedes F1 seemed to find something that worked on Miami trucks.
However, since Saturday, Mercedes F1 has been unable to repeat such a form, while other teams have pulled more pace out of the car. Still, in the final, George Russell finished the race in 5th place and Lewis Hamilton in 6th place.
George Russell complained that corner popping was a particular problem on Miami trucks.
Asked regarding the poor performance over the weekend, Mike Elliott admitted that Mercedes F1 was at a loss to explain it.
“That’s a really good question, and the one we’re currently trying to answer,” Mike Elliott said in a Mercedes video debrief.
“Looking at the Friday run, I think it was probably the most competitive at any point in the season so far.”
“We made some changes between Friday and Saturday. In reality, those changes were pretty minor, but the conditions also changed, so we looked at all the data and understood as much as possible from there. I’m thinking of pulling it out and using it to move forward in the next few races. “
Mike Elliott said efforts to control popping are in parallel with the already planned performance development program. The front wing update brought to the Miami Grand Prix as part of the latter worked as intended.
“I think it’s important to distinguish between the two,” explained Mike Elliott. “One is the normal upgrade path, and the other is to fix bounces and other performance-degrading issues.”
“The wings we brought in ensured the performance we expected and took a step forward.”
“In an experiment I was doing on a track to understand bouncing, I collected a lot of data. I collected a lot of data on a good Friday and collected data throughout the race. As always, the engineer did it. To absorb and deepen understanding. “
“In fact, every time we drive a car, we’re learning something new. That’s the purpose of the game. It’s a game that tries to understand the car faster than its competitors.”
Mike Elliott emphasized that many activities are underway in Blackley to improve W13.
“We’re a little behind at the moment, but how to improve the car, how to find the next little step, how to get rid of bouncing, and how to regain competitiveness. Or, a lot of effort has been put into understanding how we can be more competitive than the front running team we should be, and trial and error continues. “
Mike Elliott also looked back at the race in Miami and pointed out that Lewis Hamilton’s car was not damaged in the first lap contact with Fernando Alonso.
“There are a lot of engineers who are wheel-to-wheel contacts and, as always, are looking at the data flowing out of the car,” said Mike Elicot.
“Therefore, the aero dynamist looks at the pressure taps on the floor and wings, looks at the load on the push rods, and the chief engineer looks at the loads on all other suspensions to make sure they’re working as expected. “
“So you can quickly see if there was a problem with the car and if there were any problems that had to be found.”
Category: Category: F1 / Mercedes / F1 Miami GP
