Mercedes has been struggling for more than two years now. It is weird to see the former champions unable to get a podium finish yet this year. Even three years back, they had the fastest car and were the most dominating team on the grid. Then, the turbo-hybrid era ended, and the cost cap era began. Ever since 2022, the Silver Arrows have been nowhere near the title contention. In fact, besides Red Bull, no other team has had a chance to compete for the title in the last two years. It has been a complete Austrian domination since 2022. Red Bull Racing won 38 races from 2022 to 2023. In 2024, they started really well, winning the first two races, with back-to-back one-two finishes.
But the credit goes to Adrian Newey and Honda for their design and engine respectively. Moreover, the Austrian outfit has the best driver at present to handle a car like RB20. Max Verstappen had a great run with RB18 and RB19. But with RB20 in the Australian GP, the Dutch driver experienced his first DNF in a long time. On the other hand, Mercedes is still struggling to understand their car. It has been more than a couple of years, but James Allison and his team have not yet solved all the issues with the car.
James Allison Said W15 Has Correlation And Heat Problems
Mercedes did not expect to face so much more trouble after a positive start in Bahrain in 2024. As per Ruetir, James Allison revealed the car is showing new issues being less competitive in hotter conditions. The Mercedes technical director mentioned that they are seeing a new pattern where the performance seems promising at some moments of the weekend. But then, in other sessions, the car’s behavior and performance do not give the team the same sensations. Moreover, James Allison said that when they try to reconstruct the pattern, they find that competitiveness drops in hot tracks. As a result, the tire temperatures and asphalt temperatures rise simultaneously.
Moreover, the Mercedes technical director pointed at these clues, saying, these informations actually help the team to move forward. Now, they know what they need to do. First of all, Allison believes it is essential to know why their performance varies in different circuits. Then, they can work over the weekend to find the right balance. These engineers use all the tuning tools to get the right temperature for the front and the rear. Moreover, James Allison mentioned that every team every season they have correlation problems. It is not always the same with what you see at the factory and then what happens on track. Allison believes that the reason for that is the simulation tools. These tools are only a “Scaled-down version of reality.”
Mercedes Technical Director Says “The Devil Is In The Details”
According to Reuters, Allison mentioned that simulations are not the same as driving real cars on tracks. There are so many complexities and infinite details. But in the factory, there are simple models that direct the work in one direction. However, these simplified models have their flaws, and the Mercedes director said teams have to deal with correlation problems all the time. That’s why he said the “Devil is in the details.”
After finding the differences between on-track action and simulations, teams can improve their models regarding the balance between low—and high-speed corners. Lastly, Allison noted that the goal is to reduce all those differences to allow the projections to be more precise at the factory. There are problems that negatively affect cars. Hence, the teams must solve those problems.
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