“Reasons for the decline of the form of silver arrows that started the season the best after Mclarene”, – WRITE: Sport.ua
However, the next eight races were the complete opposite of the start of the championship. In addition to the exclusive Grand Prix of Canada, where the team duet for the first time in the season was finished on the podium (this result was the first for Antonelli in F1), and Rassell won at all, Mercedes was no longer distinguished.
Only 48 points and another Russell podium were obtained for this segment. For Antonelli, the situation was even worse: a series of races without points and even without finish, and the first points in Europe he received only at the last before the summer pause of the Grand Prix of Hungary, where he took the tenth place. Fully, the summer part of the season dropped the team into the designers Cup and significantly complicated the lives of both pilots in the personal standings.
What was the main reason for such a sharp decline in form and why it struck the newcomers of the team, who had high hopes, and we will look at this material.
Contrast of results
First of all, it is worth noting the contrast of the results with a very successful start of the season for both pilots. What was the secret of initial success? There were several factors here.
Preparation of the team for the start of the championship.
As mentioned above, after the pre -season tests, it became clear that Mercedes is the second force in the championship. According to all reports from the highway in Bahrain, where the practices took place, and according to experts, it was obvious that at that time it was one of the best teams. Primarily due to stability.
Both Russell and Kimi Antonelli’s newcomer managed to keep a circle at a circle and to undergo a virtually perfect trajectory without disruption or mistakes. No wonder the car was then compared to the metronome.
Conditions on the track.
Mercedes has traditionally looked better in cool weather. In such circumstances, the car worked more stable: the rubber worn less relative to the opponents, and the behavior of the car remained predictable.
But the summer came, and everything has changed. On many routes, the asphalt temperature exceeded 50 degrees, and the air reached about 30. It was expected that Mercedes would be forced to minimize the loss at this stage of the season, but in fact everything turned out much worse.
The form of rivals.
The start of the championship was unsuccessful for several top groups. If Mercedes and McLaren were added noticeably, then Bull looked as if he had remained in place, and had problems with the second car. Ferrari also looked weaker against the backdrop of the 2024 season when they fought for the title.
But over time, the situation has changed. The bull of the breakthrough did not happen, but Verstapppen sometimes showed a top speed. In Ferrari, however, it was possible to correct a large part of the problems of the beginning of the season – and this is what rejected Mercedes back.
As a result, having a rather strong composition of pilots, the team took advantage of the situation at the start of the championship. But after the sixth stage, when the formula-1 moved to the European part of the season, the picture changed. And in addition to the obvious weather factors, there were other reasons.
Grand Prix of Emilia-Romanya
It was from the stage at the Entzo and Dino Ferrari’s Motorway that all the difficulties of the Brekley team began. The team changed the geometry of the rear suspension.
This update included a new internal mounting point for the top front suspension lever. It was probably connected to the lower inner mounting point. As can be seen in the illustration, this change reduced the mounting point.
Most likely, this also had to change the internal nodes of the mounting of transverse levers. Obviously, the team expected that such refinements would improve both a mechanical and aerodynamic platform, and will also help to work more efficiently with tires. However, the expected effect could not be achieved: both George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli had difficulty in finding the stability in the behavior of the car that was at the beginning of the season.
How did it affect the car and pilots?
For Kimi Antonelli, this has become a key factor in recession. The young Italian started the season very well: the general form of the team, the stability of the car and their own progress allowed to show confident results, albeit steadily behind the partner. Only at the Grand Prix, Miami managed to ahead the British twice in qualification.
However, after the introduction of a new suspension, everything has changed. The problem was that at medium- and high-speed turns when braking with a rotated load on one side increased. If there was insufficient rotation with the old W16 configuration at the entrance, then with the new one – on the contrary, there was an excessive one. In simple words, the car was constantly brought.
Antonelli could not cope with this because of lack of experience. In the racing, he partially offset the problem with caution, which made his speed lower than optimal. But attempts to impose a pace in qualifications ended with departures from the route. The culmination was the Grand Prix of Belgium, where the car is literally saturated with medium- and high-speed turns, and the impact of the new suspension was maximum. It is difficult to remember how many times Andrea departed from the route, and even his speed was low.
Instead, Rassell coped well with new conditions, minimizing losses and remaining in the second half of the point zone. The British has accurately flashed flashbeks since the time of Villas (2019-2021), when the car was unstable and had to be constantly adapted to surprises. This experience may have helped him adapt to a new W16 suspension and avoid critical mistakes made by the young partner.
What to expect from the rest of the season?
The silver arrows returned to the old suspension configuration in Hungary, and the new was sent to the trash. This immediately gave the result that was so lacked by the team: Russell won the sixth podium in the season. Of course, this was partly possible due to Ferrari’s problems, but even in the final part of Russell’s race was the second fastest pilot after Pastri.
This is the case when it will not be worse, so fans of the German team can breathe with relief. Most likely, Mercedes will return to dense positions, fighting Ferstapppen and Ferrari for places on the podium, and sometimes for victories with McLaren.
