Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin rated the group’s tempo by way of Zandvoort’s high-speed corners as “garbage” and is searching for solutions on its inconsistency between each stints and drivers within the Components 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
After a robust begin to the Zandvoort weekend, with George Russell taking pole and victory within the dash race, Mercedes dropped behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, who secured pole and victory within the grand prix.
Whereas Mercedes nonetheless took 2-3 in qualifying and the race, with Kimi Antonelli getting the higher of team-mate Russell within the race to increase his championship result in 59 factors, the group was at a loss on why its early tempo didn’t carry by way of the weekend relative to its essential competitors.
“We have got just a few issues on the efficiency facet to attempt to dig into,” Shovlin stated on Mercedes’ Nu Silver Arrows Radio Present. “We’ll be getting on with that this week and see what we study.
“However there have been just a few corners the place we have been fairly garbage, like that mixture of [Turns] 7, 8, 9. You could possibly see [it in] the faster-speed [curves]. And it additionally offers the tyres on the left-hand facet of the automobile a tricky time. And we do not actually perceive but absolutely what’s inflicting that.
“We have got some concepts, however that is not an issue that we have suffered with up to now this 12 months. And there is loads of circuits that have gotten sort of continued corners in a single course.
“We have been a bit off the tempo within the quickest of these [turns]. After which our issues sort of grew a bit as we went by way of. All the opposite corners look stable.”
James Allison, Mercedes, Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Pictures through Getty Pictures
What added to Mercedes’ confusion was that minimal adjustments have been made to the automobiles between the dash race and grand prix, in addition to through the race itself. Whereas Shovlin accepts a degree of anticipated tempo deviation per tyre compounds and life, seeing every driver undergo at completely different instances through the grand prix left Mercedes unsure in regards to the trigger.
“We did not change the automobile. We clearly had completely different compounds at completely different levels. However once more, we have to perceive a bit,” he stated.
“George’s first stint was a bit lacklustre in comparison with his later ones. After which with Kimi, first stint was good, after which dropped a bit on the second, dropped a bit extra on the third, a bit got here again on the third. It wasn’t like we have been enjoying round with digital settings or up and down on flap angles. And for him, the steadiness of the automobile was fairly completely different stint on stint.
“The 2 drivers, usually they report related issues with a automobile on the finish of the race. Each of them, their notion of the steadiness, and possibly the fact is George had a extra understeery automobile, Kimi had a extra oversteery automobile. If we have a look at how they have been arrange, we do not but know fairly why we bought such a giant distinction.
“So, although, actually good to have a robust point-scoring weekend once we weren’t at our greatest when it comes to efficiency. It was really good enjoyable, sat on the pitwall and having to make choices in a rush. I believe the entire group loved that and rose to the event. And it was undoubtedly a great end result, given the place we have been.
“However yeah, a little bit of head-scratching to do over the following few days.”
As Shovlin identified, Mercedes nonetheless picked up its second-highest factors rating as a group this season – 46 factors, solely behind the 55 factors it notched up on the Chinese language GP – granted each have been dash race weekends with extra factors on supply.
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