Mercedes is poised to reintroduce the floor update that it abandoned running in Belgium last weekend once the Formula 1 season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix.
The German marque’s relentless development drive continued in the last round prior to the summer shutdown as W15 was equipped with a modified floor in practice.
However, a disastrous showing in the opening two practice hours and anticipated rain later in the weekend prompted Mercedes to return to the previous specification.
Aston Martin, Ferrari and RB have all encountered complications with comprehensive update packages delivering unintended consequences at stages this campaign.
However, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has denied the team endured a setback as he disclosed that its earlier weekend issues were down to the car’s mechanical set-up.
“I think we made a drastic change in order to recover some of the performance, but we believe it wasn’t the floor,” Wolff said regarding Mercedes’ plans with the part.
“It will be quite interesting when we put everything on the car in Zandvoort and correlate, and see what it does.
“Then we can be sure whether it’s the mechanical bit that we thought, or if there are few interactions aerodynamically and mechanically that didn’t work.”
The reversion proved to be a blessing as the one-stopping George Russell headed a Mercedes 1-2 until he was disqualified as his car was 1.5 kilograms underweight.
Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explained that Spa’s similar circuit characteristics with Silverstone also instigated the team’s chosen action.
“The reason that we removed them, and we essentially reverted the car to the Silverstone spec on Friday, was because we had a good race in Silverstone,” he said.
“Spa and Silverstone are not dramatically different circuits in terms of the corner speed range that you’re dealing with.”
“We’d clearly introduced some problems somewhere. We think that was largely due to how we were running the car in Spa, not induced by the updates themselves.
“That was obviously giving us a bit of bouncing in the high-speed corners, a few issues with the balance.”
“Going to that Silverstone car got it all back to normal.
“We’ve since had time to look at the data to understand what it was we did exactly and knowing that, we’re pretty confident that we’ll be going for a reintroduction in Zandvoort.”
But while Mercedes has claimed three victories in four races, Wolff has cautioned that there is no guarantee that upward trend will continue once the season restarts.
“I think we need to remain both feet on the ground,” the Austrian warned.
“The swings of performance, you see a trend definitely that’s positive on our side. With some other teams, you see a negative trend.
“But I don’t think we should really pre-empt how the second half of the season is going to go. I think it’s a tough fight, and there are four teams that are giving it everything.
“I think we can be carefully optimistic. But we’ve got to prove it. There are 10 races to go.”
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