Mercedes is certainly under pressure to deliver at the Australian GP, following lacklustre performances in Bahrain and Jeddah. So far this year, the Silver Arrows have been the fourth-best season. In Bahrain, what limited the grey-black cars was a major engine cooling problem. However, in Jeddah, there was no ‘external’ reason to justify their poor pace – which put them behind Red Bull, Ferrari, Mclaren and Aston Martin.
The W15 suffered greatly in Jeddah’s high-speed sections, losing 10 km/h to Ferrari, McLaren, and Aston Martin in qualifying. Only Haas was slower than Mercedes in these sections of the Saudi Arabia circuit.
HAMILTON: THE W15 HAS GREAT POTENTIAL – BUT THE OPERATING WINDOW IS SMALL
The W15 is significantly better than the W14, although it still shares similar vulnerabilities. These include a small operating window and bounding at high speeds, which limit its performance.
“I think we have a fantastic car, which has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, we haven’t maximized it yet, mainly in terms of setup. Obviously, we’re not happy with the performances in the first two races,” Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday in Melbourne.
“We are concentrating on understanding the car, and we hope that this weekend will be a step forward from this point of view”.
The new rear suspension (push rod) Mercedes
The Brackley-based team made reasonable progress last winter. The W15 is a project that has brought about important changes to the chassis, mechanics, and transmissions. These have generated notable improvements.
However, rivals have made even greater steps and have the luxury of a far greater operating window.
“The W15 is a much, much better car, in terms of driving, much more like a race car. Unfortunately, however, we can quickly fall to one side or the other from the optimal point of functioning,” outlined the 7-time World Champion.
In terms of bouncing, Hamilton explained how his team needed to develop the tools in the factory to fully understand the flow and structures under the floor. These are much more technical and complex than the previous generation of cars.
“If you look at how the flow structures move under the bottom, you can understand how complicated these machines are to operate.” While Red Bull solved bouncing in the 2022 Bahrain test, Mercedes was forced to sacrifice as much as 90 points of load – according to Hamilton.
“The W13 had downforce, but we couldn’t use it because we bounced. And so we lost a huge amount of performance. And every time we thought we had solved it, we added more downforce, but the car would bounce again. It was very frustrating for the engineers.”
AFTER INTENSE STUDY IN THE FACTORY, WILL MELBOURNE SUIT THE W15 BETTER?
Mercedes’ goal is to return to the podium and try to challenge Ferrari, who are currently second-fastest.
“The way we started, it would be really surprising if we could get wins or podiums this year,” said Lewis Hamilton.
“But we have a good example last season where we finished second in the Constructors’ Championship, despite having major problems with the car.”
The problem for Mercedes and everyone else in the field is the strength of Red Bull.
“I collected 8 points in two GPs compared to Max’s 58. It’s true that the season is very long, so things can change, but it will be very difficult to fight with them. Their car, they put it on the track, and it works straight away,” the World Champion concluded.
The Melbourne track is historically favourable for Mercedes and features many more medium and low-speed corners than Jeddah. The W15 was strong in these areas in the first two rounds.
Last year in Australia, the W14 qualified in second and third place and, at one point, even fought for victory. The Mercedes factory has been working intensely over the last ten days. This weekend will be essential for the team, and they will conduct a series of critical tests.
However, there is no certainty these will yield the desired results.
“With the changes we’ve made, the car could be in a better place this weekend, more similar to how we saw it in testing in Bahrain, but we won’t find out until tomorrow,” said Lewis Hamilton.
However, the Brackley team expects a very competitive Ferrari in qualifying on the softest Pirelli compound, the C5, with the race likely to present better opportunities.
“If we took away Red Bull, the battle would be really exciting. But in the end, we are not here to fight for second place. We want to fight for victory. We have a mountain to climb, but in this sport, we have seen that the values on the field can fluctuate very quickly,” said George Russell.
“Last year, Aston Martin was on the podium at the start of the season, only to finish fifth. So I think it shows how quickly the forces on the field can change.”
