• Published on 04/30/2024 – 13:36 • São Paulo (SP)
Mercedes is still looking to improve the performance of the W15 and will bring updates to the Miami GP, which takes place next weekend. According to James Allison, technical director, the aim of the new package is to improve the car’s balance and qualifying pace.
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Despite the good sprint race in which Lewis Hamilton was second in Shanghai, Mercedes did not have a good weekend in China. During qualifying for the main race, the German team saw #44 eliminated in Q1 and starting from 18th position. To make matters worse, the Brit was unable to extract the performance from the W15 and only managed to finish the race in ninth.
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George Russell, on the other hand, even managed to advance to Q3, but was only eighth. In the race, he was unable to go beyond sixth place. Therefore, Allison confirmed that the new components were developed to improve the W15’s lack of balance.
– We have upgrade packages for the car, but we will also have components that we hope will fix the balance issue that is causing us problems. As painful as it is to speak this way after a weekend like the one in China, we just have to remember that in the future there will be races where we can make these improvements, where we will be in a good position and be able to progress – pointed out the technical director of Mercedes.
– All year long we had a car with problems at the front, and in China this became even more evident. We’re going from China to Miami, a completely different track. Our challenge is to do something different from what was seen in Shanghai – added the engineer.
Qualifying for the Chinese GP saw Sergio Pérez, second placed, around 0s3 behind Carlos Sainz’s seventh place. And increasingly tight times have become a constant in the last rounds of F1. Therefore, Mercedes hopes to see some performance gains in the fast lap pace.
– We certainly learned something from China. We also expect more pace in qualifying with Miami’s updates. With a grid so close, any change can make a big difference. We learned over the weekend in China that if you want to be ambitious, you have to do it in the sprint race and then adjust the car setup for Sunday’s race, not the other way around.
Formula 1 returns from May 3 to 5 for the Miami GP, the first of three that will take place in the United States in the 2024 season.
