Mercedes has revealed that its latest floor upgrade is generating the expected aerodynamic load, but potential handling issues could be surfacing as a result. The team introduced this new floor during the Belgian Grand Prix, just before the summer break. However, due to poor weather conditions in practice at the Spa, Mercedes postponed the use of the upgraded new floor. Despite this, Lewis Hamilton secured victory without the upgrade in that race.
New Floor Faces Mixed Results on Track
The team decided to run the new floor at Zandvoort following the summer break, but the results were less than ideal. Hamilton and George Russell struggled with pace and finished behind McLaren’s Lando Norris. Despite the lackluster performance, Mercedes remains confident that the new floor is heading towards the best performance.
Trackside engineering chief Andrew Shovlin shared insights about the new upgrade in a recent Mercedes YouTube video. According to Shovlin, the new floor is generating the downforce the team had aimed for, providing a clearer picture of its overall impact, he mentioned that
Over the last three races, we’ve done various compares of the packages and principally comparing the floor, and what we are confident in is that it’s generating the load that we expect, Shovlin said. How do we know that? We’re measuring the forces that it generates on the road through the suspension. We are also looking at the pressures that are generated across the car, and we can correlate that with what we’re seeing in the wind tunnel, and that allows us to get a pretty decent read on whether it’s doing what we expect.
The Mercedes team was highly focused on the forces the floor generated during the race. The engineers were also looking, examining the pressure, that was generated across the overall car during the race. Realistically, accurate balancing is still required for them to have complete control during the race.
A Modest Gain, But Handling Remains a Challenge
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While the new floor provides the anticipated load, Shovlin emphasized that the expected gain wasn’t massive. However, one of the ongoing challenges with modern F1 regulations is that added downforce can sometimes affect the car’s handling. Ferrari encountered a similar issue earlier this season when an upgrade led to more downforce but also caused bouncing in high-speed corners. Shovlin acknowledged that determining the impact of this new floor on the car’s handling is a more complex issue, he said that
The more difficult question that we need to answer is: Is there anything subtle in the handling characteristics that this package might be doing that we haven’t anticipated?” he added. That’s quite difficult to assess, because the car will perform differently track-to-track, some tracks it’s been working very well. Other circuits we’ve struggled with the balance of the car regardless of the aerodynamic spec, and yes, the last two races haven’t been as good as some of the one’s that preceded it.
Although they have made significant improvements, it is clear that handling and balancing issues persist with the car. While it performs well on some tracks, it can be problematic on others. The team needs to concentrate on addressing these handling issues: to fully resolve the problems they encounter.
Next Steps for Mercedes
Despite the challenges, Shovlin noted that the team will continue to assess the data and adapt accordingly. Mercedes has other updates in the pipeline, with Shovlin expressing optimism about what’s to come. This marks another step in Mercedes’ ongoing effort to return to the front of the grid, but as always in F1, every change comes with new challenges.
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