Heading into the 2024 F1 season summer break, Mercedes witnessed a dramatic turnaround to win three of the last four races. It all started with George Russell’s Austria victory powered by Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ unwarranted crash. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton broke his winless curse to win in Silverstone.
Later in Spa, Mercedes achieved a 1-2 podium finish before George Russell was disqualified for technical reasons. However, Spa weekend was eventful as the team scrapped an important floor upgrade after shady practice session. Interestingly, for the Dutch Grand Prix, Mercedes apparently have had a change of heart backed by solid data.
Mercedes To Use New Floor For Entirety Of Dutch GP
After starting the 2024 F1 season in mid-field, Mercedes produced an inspiring comeback with minimal upgrades, thus stunning rivals and fans alike. They won three of the four races heading into summer break, including a provisional 1-2 podium finish in Spa. However, a key upgrade component, i.e., a revamped floor, was scrapped following the practice sessions of the Spa due to a lack of desired performance gains. The floor failed to adapt to Spa track conditions, and the instability led to the engineers scraping the competent parts off both cars. However, the data took a wild spin in Zandvoort. The Silver Arrows reintroduced the revamped floor on George Russell’s car for Friday practice sessions, whereas Lewis Hamilton ran on old specs.
Upon positive collection of data, Mercedes has formally decided to use the new floor for the remainder of the Dutch Grand Prix. Trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin admitted that the floor behaved unnatural to Spa conditions. While the Friday conditions in Zandvoort were tricky due to rainy weather, there is solid evidence that suggests that the floor will produce noticeable gains. Hence, both cars will use this component for the entirety of the race weekend. “What we saw looks in line with expectations, so we’ll continue the weekend with that fitted to both cars,” Shovlin said. Notably, the fight at the top is getting fierce, with McLaren and Red Bull on the edge. Hence, Mercedes cannot afford to put a foot wrong at this stage of the season. A strong finish is important to set the tone for the near future.
Lewis Hamilton Aims Top 5 Finish After Mixed FP Sessions
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, who was running on old specs during Friday’s practice session, revealed that his set up kept him from pushing the soft tyre. The set up choice was hindering his long-run pace. Regardless, with the floor upgrade, Hamilton is confident of a top 5 finish, if not a victory.
On the other hand, George Russell, who had the floor upgrade on Friday, was frustrated with the challenging wind conditions that pushed him off the track a couple of times. However, on the brighter side, the upgrades are working as expected, and he feels relatively closer to McLaren and Red Bull in terms of sheer pace and overall performance.
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