At the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton takes control of the Mercedes W15 racing car.
F1 commentator Harry Benjamin believes Mercedes are “still lost” with the direction of their car, though they are looking to rectify that with further upgrades to the W15 at Imola this weekend.
Benjamin, typically found behind the microphone for BBC Radio 5 Live’s race coverage, will be stepping in for David Croft on Sky Sports F1. As the channel’s primary commentator takes a break for the first of three scheduled races this season, Benjamin will be taking over the role.
Mercedes ‘not in a good spot still’ despite early W15 upgrades
Toto Wolff confirmed ahead of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix that further improvements are going to be made to the W15 this weekend, after initial upgrades were brought to the car in Miami.
Despite cautioning that their changes will need time to yield results, he did affirm that they have now discovered a definite direction for the car and a clear path forward.
However, despite being far behind their competitors in the Constructors’ standings, Formula 1 commentator Benjamin asserts that they appear to be uncertain about their desired direction.
“I think Mercedes are in a not in a good spot still,” Benjamin told the Sky Sports F1 podcast, in the days leading up to his lead commentary debut with the channel.
In Miami, they introduced enhancements. According to their own statements, I had conversations with a few team members who revealed that they added a large wing, fully aware that it would compromise their speed on straightaways, particularly the lengthy back straight in Miami. Consequently, they anticipated experiencing some setbacks in terms of performance.
However, taking all of that into consideration, it was likely one of Lewis Hamilton’s most impressive weekends thus far this year in terms of battling and achieving a respectable points outcome.
However, Mercedes currently finds themselves in the lower ranks of the top 10. Personally, I can’t help but feel that they are still searching for direction.
Although they may introduce additional upgrades, it eventually becomes frustratingly unproductive, as if repeatedly banging your head against a brick wall.
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Karun Chandhok, a former Formula 1 driver and fellow panellist, highlighted that Mercedes is currently in pursuit of the perfect balance for their car during race weekends. He expressed his surprise, as teams that have properly established their car setups through previous efforts should not face such challenges.
He holds the belief that McLaren’s rivals have received a significant confidence boost as they successfully implemented their major upgrade in Miami within a limited time frame, whereas Mercedes is still making adjustments to their car.
He said that they appear to still be searching for a magical solution and continue to discuss testing different configurations and trying out various car setups.
If you are familiar with your baseline, there should be no need for experimentation during race weekends.
You ought to arrive with a setup, and then make slight adjustments in terms of tweaking, mechanical balance, roll balance, aero balance, and weight distribution to bring everything within an acceptable range.
Once you are able to reach FP1 within a specific timeframe, the focus shifts to fine-tuning your approach considering track evolution and the influence of tire performance due to varying track temperatures. This is the stage where McLaren currently stands, in my opinion.
The engineering team should feel extremely confident and proud of themselves for successfully introducing a significant upgrade to the Miami race despite having only one practice session to fine-tune the car. This upgrade worked exceptionally well in the Sprint quali, Sprint race, and ultimately the Grand Prix. It is a remarkable achievement that greatly boosts the team’s confidence.
“I completely concur with Harry’s viewpoint that Mercedes lacks a well-defined thought process and understanding regarding their current position with the car.”
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