Mercedes has revealed that excessive overheating with the tyres when track temperatures are higher is a “problematic” limitation with the team’s 2024 Formula 1 car.
The German marque’s disappointing run since the summer break continued in Singapore as George Russell wound up in fourth place, while Lewis Hamilton was sixth.
Hamilton and Russell had heightened Mercedes’ expectations going into the 62-lap race as the two capitalised on overnight set-up tweaks to lock out the second row.
However, the decision to put Hamilton on the Soft compound at the start turned out to be an ill-advised one as the seven-time F1 champion struggled on worn rubber.
But while team-mate Russell ran the optimal strategy starting on the Mediums, the Briton was powerless to prevent Oscar Piastri’s McLaren from claiming third place.
Mercedes Technical Director James Allison has conceded that the Marina Bay Circuit’s high demand on traction zones accentuated the W15’s woes with degradation.
“Once again we suffered from something that has been problematic for us,” Allison stated in a video that Mercedes released.
“With the softer compounds and on tracks where the tyre temperatures are sky high and it is very easy to overheat them, we lose competitiveness compared to our opponents.
“Singapore is extreme from this point of view and for us it was something quite difficult to manage.”
Mercedes tease upcoming F1 upgrades
Allison has outlined that Mercedes will attempt to discover a solution to the long-standing issue, as it prepares to implement a sizeable upgrade package next month.
“We will try to understand how to mitigate what has afflicted us this weekend and how to make the tyres work better on these types of circuits that are prone to overheating.
“On top of that, we will also have a lot of work to do to complete our final package of updates of the season.”
He added: “We have a major aero package coming to Austin that we hope will give us a good weekend.”
Mercedes deciphering previous update setback
The developments that Mercedes has in the pipeline will aim to return the squad to the level that it showed prior to the break when it took three victories in four races.
Mercedes’ momentum has stalled since a revised floor in Belgium coincided with a dip in competitiveness, prompting it to abandon running the updated part in Baku.
But despite conducting numerous comparison tests between the two specs, Mercedes remained unsure in Monza earlier this month whether the floor was the cause.
“This package is subtly affecting the driveability characteristics and we hadn’t anticipated that,” Head of Track Engineering Andrew Shovlin explained.
“It’s quite difficult to verify, because the car behaves differently from track to track.
“On some circuits it behaved very well, while on others we struggled with the balance, regardless of the aerodynamic package.”
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