F1 teams had to weigh the work on this year’s cars against the effort required to maximize the potential of next season’s challengers.
And while Red Bull pushed well into the season with upgrades to its RB16B, Mercedes decided to stop work on its W12 fairly early to focus on its future project.
The team felt they couldn’t fall behind with the 2022 car, despite admitting there was a risk of being overtaken on the track this year.
But even though Red Bull enjoyed a phase before the summer break when it was the clear pacemaker, Mercedes has turned things around since the Belgian Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas won the sprint race at Monza before taking the Turkish Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton was ahead in Russia.
More important than the results for Mercedes is the fact that the team remains competitive as this was the phase of the campaign when it was feared that it might fall on its heels.
Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin said, “We were in good shape in the dry and we showed good pace in the wet and it looks like a car that can win championships.
“If you go back to the beginning of the year with the development decisions and try to balance the two years, one of our worries at the end of the year has been whether we can keep this car in pole position to order get a lockout in the front row and control a race?
“It’s really comforting that we’re in the top six and we’ve shown that we have a package that can qualify them.” [Red Bull] on a Saturday and outperforms it on a Sunday. “
Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes W12, in the pit lane
Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images
While the signs are positive, the team has suggested that a “Goldilocks” scenario with their tires in Turkey makes them consider that his pace against Red Bull may not be as strong everywhere.
Chief Technical Officer James Allison admits that Mercedes’ shape in Turkey may have been flattered by the fact that the tires were in a sweet spot all weekend rather than the handling imbalance like other teams.
“One of our engineers said this weekend that the tires are in a kind of goldilocks this weekend: not too hot, not too cold on a particularly picky tarmac,” he said.
“We knew we were very strong, but we also knew that the line between that strength and average was pretty fine. A few degrees here or there and we could have been on the hot or cold side of the Goldilocks zone . “
“So it was a very good performance, the car was very well balanced, we didn’t seem to suffer from the understeer that was pretty common in the pit lane this weekend. But I don’t think you could.” read that automatically in the coming races. “
Allison believes that a look at the trend of recent events gives a much better indication of the team’s potential against Red Bull – given that his side wasn’t really behind until the Dutch Grand Prix.
“At Silverstone we gave our car a decent upgrade package and that kind of made our season a happier place,” he said.
“In the races since then, in my opinion, there has only been one in which we have been completely beaten and that was Zandvoort. In the others we have overshadowed it with the fastest car and in some places, like Istanbul and Sochi, we were right well, Monza too, well.
“I think we shaded it on average, but in most of the places where we were the faster car it was more of a coin toss than a guarantee. I think that means that at least we are.” in battle. “
