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The Mercedes floor used at the Belgian Grand Prix has left the team concerned.
Mercedes introduced a new floor specification at the Belgian Grand Prix, which was used in Zandvoort. However, the Silver Arrows admitted that there are some concerns regarding the perfomance at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Team Principal Toto Wolff said that his team’s performance at Zandvoort was “head scratching”. However, the Silver Arrows now believe they might have an answer to its poor performance at the first race after the summer break.
The German mnaufacturers removed its latest floor at the Belgian Grand Prix. The team found that with the new floor, it resulted in confusing data from Friday practice. Mercedes then went on to win in Spa – initially through George Russell until the Briton got disqualified. Lewis Hamilton was the eventual winner.
Despite winning without the new floor, the team was adamant about the new floor’s potential, committing with it for the full weekend in Zandvoort.
However, this led to a disappointing result – both drivers finished way off race winner Lando Norris – leading to questions about its latest floor design.
The team’s data and on-track analysis reveals the new floor produces more downforce than the previous floor. However, Technical Director James Allison implied that the new floor could have upset the balance of the car, costing lap time.
New floor has potential but has side-effects
Alisson says the team are working hard to try and understand how the new floor is affecting the car’s performance. The Mercedes Technical Director spoke in Mercedes’ post-race debrief video.
Alisson was asked how the floor performed at the Dutch Grand Prix. He responded:
“Simple answer is, we don’t fully know.”
“You can take some straightforward measurements and say that the downforce it was supposed to deliver looked like it was there. So at one level, you could take comfort that it worked as expected.
“But a lot of the pace of the cars in this year, particularly, is down to how well they handle. So it’s not just a question of ‘does your aero package deliver you downforce’, but is it delivering you the balanced car that you need through the corners? Is it delivering you the balanced car you need from high speed to low speed?
“We definitely know that we didn’t have a well-balanced car this weekend. That’s where most of our pace went. Whether that was the new floor, the new aero package or not, we need to keep an open mind and something we will need to revisit in future races.
“Right now, we know it measured the downforce, but we’re not certain that it delivered good balance. Something we need to investigate as we go on through the year.”
Alisson believes that the car was on a “knife edge”, describing the balance of the car with the new floor on. He further emphasised his point, saying that the W15 was “too ready to snap at the rear”.
Mercedes will have a big decision to make this weekend at Monza, whether to revert to its old floor or stick with its new one.
Feature Image Credit: Mark Thompson via Getty Images