Mercedes still can’t fully explain the up-and-coming form in France and Hungary, when two double podiums were achieved in a row. The change in form in Budapest, when you first experienced “the worst Friday of the season” but only managed to take pole position one day later, remains a mystery.
“I don’t have any explanations for that,” says team boss Toto Wolff, who had the following request to his team after the unexpected pole position in Hungary: “I have Shov [Andrew Shovlin, leitender Renningenieur bei Mercedes] told him to write down everything they did today.”
“And including the food, to understand why it went so well,” jokes Wolff. “But honestly, this season oscillates between depression and exuberance and sometimes changes from day to day.”
Wolff: Current underbody not previously tested in the wind tunnel
“We have [am Freitag] Tried things that didn’t work at all, but they gave us a little more guidance [den Samstag]. Honestly, it’s a painful exercise this year,” said the Mercedes team boss after qualifying in Budapest.
Although Mercedes has eliminated the initially strong “bouncing”, the world champions of the past eight years still seem to be fishing in the dark when it comes to fully exploiting the potential of the new “ground effect car”.
“We’ve done unconventional things this season,” says Wolff. “I remember having a conversation with a very smart lady on the aerodynamics team. And she said, ‘If you had told me last year that we were putting an underbody on the car that we hadn’t tested in the wind tunnel, I would have said we would never do that.'”
“But we did it and everyone was proud of the results. And it’s like we try new things every weekend,” explains Wolff, who also admits that at Mercedes you can no longer just rely on the data .
Wolff: Mercedes operates “reverse engineering”
“This is a database sport. But if you can’t rely on the data because it doesn’t correlate from the virtual world, from the wind tunnel or from CFD simulations with what’s happening on the track in real time, then you just have to do things try out.”
“We try to find correlations by basically deriving them backwards, and we did [am Samstag] done and had some positive results with it,” explains Wolff.
Russell on concept change: Would rather make us slower
After the Grand Prix, Mercedes driver George Russell emphasized again that a change of concept – especially with the sidepods – would not be a panacea: “I think we just have to stay open. But I don’t think that changing the vehicle concept will make us faster , rather the opposite, to be honest.”
“Sometimes you just have to stick with the process and keep moving forward. And that’s difficult when you’re not up to par and things aren’t going the way you want them to. But personally, I believe in everyone on our team, and I think we’re making a lot of progress at the moment.”
“We have [in Ungarn] did a good job and both showed good pace whereas earlier in the season we finished a minute behind first place. In the last two races we were within ten seconds, so I think it’s definitely going in the right direction,” said Russell.
Mercedes have been more aggressive with Hungary set-up
It was also surprising in Hungary that the two Mercedes drivers got the tires in the right temperature window right away in the cold temperature conditions on Saturday and Sunday, which was one of the biggest weaknesses of the season earlier.
When asked about this, Wolff explains: “I think we were perhaps always a little too conservative for a while when it came to the rims and the aggressiveness of the set-up. But I can’t say more about that.”
Wolff: Want to win races on their own
With the strong results in the past races, Mercedes has returned to Ferrari in the fight for second place in the constructors’ championship. Despite four wins this season, the Scuderia are only 30 points ahead, but Red Bull already seems to have overtaken Mercedes with a lead of 127 points.
“With second place you are the first loser,” says the Mercedes team boss when asked about the World Cup situation. “For me personally, it’s not that important to finish second or third in the Constructors’ Championship.”
“I want to race to be at the front and develop the car so that we can win races on our own, beat the Ferraris and Red Bulls and prepare for next year instead of worrying about championship position .”
Is the balance of power changing at Spa?
“I wouldn’t say that we’re suddenly in full swing and able to win races, because I don’t think that’s the case. I think we got off to a good start in Budapest on Saturday and [im Rennen] harvested the fruits.”
“But I don’t think we’re close enough to Ferrari and Red Bull to really challenge them. But we’re learning a lot and it’s important to make mistakes sometimes,” sums up Wolff, who, however, looks at the balance of power the summer break is excited.
From the Spa race weekend, the FIA technical directive will come into effect to prevent the potential use of flexible underbody and curb “bouncing”, which could potentially cost the top teams Red Bull and Ferrari performance.
“It will be very interesting what we will see in Spa,” Wolff believes. “Let’s see if the difference in vehicle height then makes a difference for the teams that have driven so low. But I no longer believe in the ‘silver bullets’, as they say, that we would then suddenly be three tenths faster than Everyone else is, but anyway, that’s going to be interesting.”