Mercedes will not run its problematic floor first introduced at Spa at any point in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as it assesses whether this has caused its post-Belgium victory form dip.
Mercedes entered 2024’s recent summer break on the back of three wins in four races – including an on-the-road 1-2 at Spa – but the Belgian victory eventually handed to Lewis Hamilton came after it had chosen not to race its latest floor development, having detected problems with it in that event’s opening practice sessions.
At the post-break Dutch GP, where Mercedes struggled for race pace after leading FP2, a planned back-to-back test of the new and old floor specifications was thwarted by the inclement weather at Zandvoort, where Mercedes chose to fit the newer floor ahead of its poor race in any case.
It then completed the back-to-back assessment on Friday at Monza last time out – around Andrea Kimi Antonelli crashing George Russell’s car and leaving Mercedes light on spare floors – before again fitting the newer version for the remainder of the weekend.
Russell then managed to outqualify Charles Leclerc’s race-winning Ferrari at Monza but did not make an impression in the race after his first corner mistake, while Hamilton did not trouble the leading positions in either qualifying or the race in Italy.
Autosport understands that Mercedes has decided not to run the Spa floor at all in Baku to gain a full weekend of data on how the car – which had upgrades to its diffuser, beam wing, front wing and halo that remain fitted, meaning Mercedes has not reverted to its full pre-Spa Hungarian GP specification – performs without it.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
When asked to comment on what he suspected had stopped Mercedes replicating its Spa form ever since – particularly if there were conditions or circumstances in addition to the confusion over the floor that had perhaps played a part – Hamilton replied: “There are lots of question marks on a lot of it.
“I think we’re just trying to understand it. It could be a number of things. It could be track-dependent, it could be the upgrade. My gut is telling me it could be the upgrade but it’s hard to see the difference between the two.
“But we’re going to try this weekend [and] roll back on some of it and see whether or not we can spot it.
“There’s a lot of work going on just to analyse it because it gives the team a better direction…
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