Is this the solution?

Problems at Mercedes: “Recognizing a pattern now”

Mercedes is currently pursuing a hot lead.(Bild: APA/AFP/Paul Crock)

Mercedes technical boss James Allison has explained that the Formula 1 racing team has discovered a hot lead in its search for the current problems. According to the Briton, competitiveness decreases when the track is warm. Now it was time to react. 

"We are starting to see a pattern where most weekends we have a phase where we feel confident with the car, but then in the important sessions, qualifying and the race, it slips through our fingers," explains Allison, who is ultimately optimistic.

The Briton is now certain that they are on the trail of the problems: "If we try to identify this pattern, the strongest correlation we can make at the moment is that our competitiveness decreases when the track is warm, when the day is at its warmest and therefore the tire temperatures increase with those of the track."

Is everything happening very quickly now?
This gives the team an indication of how to react from now on. This is where Allison and Co. are now starting and hoping for a quick turnaround. However, it seems that Mercedes has not yet really got to grips with the new car. The technical director also made it clear that it is not yet certain whether the shortcomings of the W15 can be remedied with set-up work or whether more drastic changes are required.

"If you have correctly assessed the reasons for our fluctuating competitiveness, then you can work out a program over the weekend that aims to change the temperature and the temperature balance between the front and rear axles in our favor and use all the conventional set-up tools on the car," explained the Briton. If that is not enough, the situation is "much more difficult" to solve. In order to then "cure it", the underlying characteristics would have to be changed: "That can either be quick and dirty, or something more elaborate and complicated," concludes the 56-year-old.