The first day of free practice for the Jeddah GP was a tale of two halves for Mercedes. It was second place for George Russell and ninth for Lewis Hamilton, with traffic impacting the 7-time Champion’s qualifying simulation.
Mercedes’ goal was to analyse all the tyre compounds and find a good balance for the W15. For the latter, there is still a lot of work to do, as the new car of the former World Champion team ran alternating set-ups today.
They excelled in the low-fuel runs while struggling more on the long runs. A similar theme emerged in Bahrain, albeit in a reversed trend.
As for the engine overheating problems, judgments have been postponed until Sunday’s race, “given that we didn’t have any problems in free practice last Thursday,” a source close to Mercedes told us.
In free practice, both W15s took to the track with a more open cooling configuration. All the side vents were open, partly due to the 8°C increase in ambient temperatures compared to Bahrain.
Russell: “We didn’t have the car in the perfect window today”
Mercedes are still learning about their all-new platform. This is forcing them to make changes and alterations to set-up between practice sessions. Free running is invaluable for the team.
Last season, there was also an important theme. “It was fun to get back on track here in Jeddah, a high-speed and fun circuit.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t have the car in the perfect window,” said George Russell after FP2.
“The times seem good on the flying lap while we are not yet so good on the race pace”.
Hamilton and Russell carried out many tests in FP1 with different set-ups to learn about the W15. As a result, they ran almost polar opposite configurations in Jeddah.
“We did a lot of tests today. We are only at the second race of the season.
The car is new, and therefore, we have to continue to learn,” Russell explained.
“I started with a drastically different set-up to that of Lewis, and in FP2, we again went in two completely different directions, also exchanging parts of the setup to see what works.”
Mercedes are working to understand a car that is very different to its predecessors.
This is true in both aerodynamic and mechanical terms, with the push-rod rear suspension yet to be fully understood.
“We tried to go lower and stiffer, with good results. The moment we go softer and higher, we lose time and we saw it with Lewis,” Toto Wolff said.
Already in Bahrain, the W15 was a very fast car when it was set very low. Unfortunately, the wear limits of the board force the technicians of the Anglo-German team to raise the W15.
This proves costly for performance in the race. In Jeddah, this limit could be minimised thanks to a very smooth track circuit.
However, everyone else has lowered their cars compared to the first race of the season. It is not strange that a bit of bouncing has returned to some cars, including Mercedes.
“Between the second and third free practices, work on the simulator in the factory will be important to try to get a little more performance,” concluded Russell.
The 26-year-old sees Red Bull as favourites, with Ferrari and Aston also in contention. McLaren, of course, will also be in contention.
Hamilton unhappy with W15 rear end
The negative side of the coin, also in Jeddah, comes from Lewis Hamilton’s garage. The seven-time world champion had a rather difficult day.
“Today I didn’t feel the rear of the W15, and on a fast track like this one in Jeddah, it’s essential to have confidence in the rear,” said the 7-time World Champion.
His preference for a more stable rear is well-documented:
“We worked a lot on the setup from a session to another, but I didn’t solve my problems.”
Hamilton, however, remains confident ahead of tomorrow as “George was clearly much happier in the car today.”
“Today, we were bouncing and had aerodynamic balance problems,” admitted Toto Wolff.
The W15 machines have lacked grip at high speeds, even though they were still set quite low on the asphalt.
Mercedes even generated some porpoisng, despite the circuit’s very smooth asphalt.
“Our long runs weren’t very long, which wasn’t ideal. It’s true that we set competitive times.
“But neither of the two drivers was satisfied with the overall balance,” Andrew Shovlin said at the end of Practice 2.
“We still have a lot of work to do overnight to find further performance. The good thing is that we have many areas to look for it.”
Author: Piergiuseppe Donadoni
Translation: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
