The Mercedes one-two in Brazil was less than a week ago. In Abu Dhabi, however, it does not look like it will be repeated. On the contrary: in qualifying for the last Formula 1 race of the year at the Yas Marina Circuit, Mercedes suffered a defeat. The Silver Arrow team was almost seven tenths of a second off the best time.
Lewis Hamilton, the faster Mercedes driver, finished fifth in qualifying, 0.684 seconds back, with George Russell a further 0.003 seconds back in sixth place. Both Mercedes are behind both Red Bulls and both Ferraris on the starting grid.
How does Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff explain that? He says on ‘Sky’ England: “I think we just didn’t get it right.” His team may have “taken a step backwards” towards qualifying and Ferrari “a small step forward”, he thinks.
Does the vote not fit at Mercedes?
Maybe Mercedes laid an egg themselves with the coordination of the two W13 vehicles. Wolff: “In order for us to have a good racing car on Sunday, we went on steep wings and a lot of air resistance. But that made us just slow on the straights. Nothing worked there.”
For Hamilton, it’s “a bit of a surprise,” as he explains after qualifying. “We didn’t expect to be eight tenths behind here.” On the other hand, after Brazil, Mercedes did not expect to be at the front again in Abu Dhabi. The performance there was “obviously track-specific,” says Hamilton.
The silver arrow doesn’t like long straight lines
The big gap in Abu Dhabi is due to the long straights. “The make up six tenths,” says Hamilton.
Russell sees it similarly: “We’re just not efficient enough. Every time we get to a track like this where you have all kinds of corners and long straights, then we really have problems. Spa is another example. We lose there so much speed compared to Red Bull on the straights.”
That’s why Wolff is asked whether his team has at least thought about using the two cars differently. He agrees and says: “But we had the assumption that it would be better for Sunday to have more downforce to protect the tires. So we’ll wait and see.”
Russell believes: Mercedes has no chance against Verstappen
The race will be difficult anyway from the point of view of Mercedes. According to Russell, Max Verstappen is “definitely” out of the reach of the Silver Arrows in the Red Bull. And will it be enough against Ferrari over the distance?
Russell: “Our pace didn’t seem to be that different from Ferrari’s on Friday. But we seemed to be closer over a lap on Friday. So maybe Ferrari improved a bit more than us. On the other hand, we also know: We’re going to the race we tend to do a little more than the rest of the field.”
Hamilton: Again the well-known brake problem
However, Mercedes has some additional construction sites in Abu Dhabi. At Hamilton, for example, a brake problem reappeared.
It’s a known malfunction that’s been with him “all year,” says Hamilton. He describes the phenomenon as follows: “The brake discs have different temperatures. So when you hit the brakes, the car pulls in one direction.”
Wolff put it very similarly: “The drivers start the lap, but the brakes don’t behave uniformly. In other words, the left brake doesn’t do what the right one does. That makes the car nervous in the braking zone.”
For Hamilton, this is expressed, for example, in turn 5 in Abu Dhabi: “It’s a left turn, but the car pulls to the right there, so it’s not ideal.”
Bouncing is also making a big comeback
In addition, the so-called bouncing, also known as porpoising, occurs more frequently on the Mercedes W13. The vehicle jumps at high speed, the air flow on the underbody does not work constantly. “It definitely costs us a lot of time,” says Hamilton. He feels reminded of “the races before Austin”. It was “not that easy” under these circumstances.
According to Russell, Mercedes drivers are particularly inhibited “in the fast corners”. “It’s not particularly pleasant. And it probably contributed to the fact that we’re further behind Red Bull than in the last two races. But there weren’t any fast corners either, so there was no porpoising either.”
Or whether Mercedes simply took more risks with the settings of the vehicles at the last race of the season? “Possibly,” says Russell. “But: If you have porpoising in such corners, like we do, then that doesn’t help for the lap time. You have to push the car to the limit.”
“But we tried to avoid porpoising in the corners because the rear bounced and we just slipped on the tires. I hope it won’t be an issue next year, but so far it’s always been there in the background. It kicks obviously still on, so it’s good that the FIA is making changes for the coming year.”
The winter homework list is getting longer and longer
Mercedes also has a lot planned for the winter. Fixing the brake problem, for example, will be a “big issue,” says team boss Wolff. Hamilton agrees: “Braking and bouncing are probably priority one, air resistance priority two or also priority one. We then have a number of other issues.”
Next year’s Mercedes must be more efficient overall, adds Russell, especially aerodynamically. “Clearly we need to improve that for 2023 if we want to have a car that’s going to be stronger throughout the season,” he said.
Here and now, places five and six are “pretty much where we are with our car,” Russell continues. “We were a bit slower than we thought or hoped for. But we have a good starting position so that we can fight for the podium on Sunday.”
Hamilton seems to be thinking one step further: the winter break. This is indicated by his final sentence: “I’m looking forward to the end on Sunday.”