Mercedes Calls Emergency Meetings to Diagnose Performance Slump
Mercedes faces urgent questions as its Formula 1 car struggles, prompting internal reviews ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
What’s behind Mercedes’ sudden performance drop? George Russell revealed that Mercedes has convened meetings to dissect the issues plaguing their car’s performance in recent Formula 1 races.
- Mercedes is holding internal meetings to understand recent performance declines.
- George Russell has not finished higher than fifth since winning the Canadian Grand Prix three races ago.
- Russell attributes the struggles to rear stability issues and a more challenging car to drive.
- A technical directive on front wing flexing implemented before the Spanish Grand Prix is suspected as a contributing factor.
- Trackside engineering head Andrew Shovlin believes the problems are more complex than just the front wing change.
Since clinching victory at the Canadian Grand Prix three races prior, Russell has found himself consistently finishing outside the top five. Both he and teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli have voiced concerns about the handling characteristics of their cars. At the recent Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, Russell secured fifth place, trailing race winner Oscar Piastri by a significant 35 seconds. He finished just five seconds ahead of Alex Albon in sixth.
“We need to really understand what is going on and why we’ve taken such a step backwards,” Russell stated after the Belgian Grand Prix. “These conditions today, you would argue, are ideal for us and our car — and once again, it’s been the worst performance of the season.”
“The car isn’t feeling as nice to drive at the moment as it once did,” he added. “Lacking rear stability, whereas at the start of the year it was much better. I think Kimi and I are collectively making more mistakes because the car is more challenging to drive.”
Russell indicated that a thorough team review is scheduled for this week. “We’re going to have a big sit-down this week and try and figure it out,” he said. “It may be as simple as reverting back some of the changes we’ve made. But, in Formula 1, it’s never that simple.”
A potential catalyst for the team’s struggles, Russell suspects, is the stricter regulation on front wing flexing, introduced via a technical directive at the Spanish Grand Prix. This change necessitated redesigns and reduced the car’s ability to balance itself between high and low-speed corners.
“Obviously, we had the change of the front wing in Barcelona,” Russell explained. “We then went in a slightly different direction afterwards to sort of tackle the issue of the change of front wing. And clearly, since that point, we’ve taken a big step backwards.”
Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin, however, suggested the situation is more nuanced. He pointed to the car’s strong performance in Canada, the race immediately following the technical directive, as evidence that the issue extends beyond the front wing modification.
“What we had early on in the year was a car that was working well at pretty much every circuit,” Shovlin commented. “We were generally fighting for the second row of the grid, if not the front row.”
Shovlin acknowledged that while the directive might not have helped stability, the car performed well in Montreal with the new wing. “The fact is other people are able to balance their cars a bit better,” he observed. “There’s no doubt a solution in there for us, but as I said, we’re just looking at all the steps that we’ve taken with the car design over the last number of races.”
He emphasized the team’s focus on identifying the root cause of the “entry stability issue.” Shovlin also noted that even when aero balance was adjusted, the instability persisted, suggesting a deeper problem.
Regarding potential immediate fixes for the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, Shovlin stated that changes are possible. “It’s definitely possible for us to look at changing aspects of the car for Budapest,” he said. “How deep we go will depend on what parts we’ve got around us.”
“There’s quite a lot that we’ve changed,” Shovlin concluded, “so we’ve got a meeting with the drivers to go through some of what we’ve done over the year to try and make sure that our efforts are focused on the right things, not just changing things for the sake of it.”
