Mercedes will again test the upgrade of the sub, which it has been struggling to get working since Belgium, alongside the older version in the opening practice session for the Grand Prix of Italy .
The Silver Arrows unveiled their new floor ahead of this season’s summer break at the Belgian Grand Prix, but have not raced it after being there to confusing results in terms of resistance levels. Then, at the last Dutch GP, they decided to continue adding to both W15s after a similar back-to-back comparison in the opening practice at Zandvoort.
But after Mercedes admitted it didn’t fully know how the new floor really performed – according to team technical director James Allison – at the weekend at Zandvoort, where much more was expected after the win at Spa, they decided to further assess how the new and older floor working on the 1st session in Monza.
In that session, Andrea Kimi Antonelli makes his F1 weekend debut driving George Russell’s car.
Russell was asked about Mercedes’ problems at Zandvoort at the start of the Monza weekend and revealed that as well as still needing answers to questions on track, his team concluded that “one of the changes we made to the car – it was probably not quite the direction we wanted to go [for the car’s best performance last weekend].”
“But it wasn’t so obvious at the time, during the race weekend, and only afterwards when we did the analysis.”
“It’s kind of like: right, that’s an area where we lost and we have to avoid that at all costs going forward.”
Russell said Monza “will be another good opportunity to test” the Spa floor, which he insists was not solely responsible for Mercedes’ performance slump compared to rivals McLaren and Red Bull – after they beat them without it in Belgium.
“Ultimately, when you upgrade a car, you’re talking about a maximum of a tenth or two, but performance can change by a few tenths from race to race,” he added.
“So if you have a weekend off, which coincides with an upgrade, people are very quick to say: it must be an upgrade. But if you drive six races in a row on the same floor, your performance can oscillate by half a second compared to your rivals.”
“I am convinced that the floor works as we expect. And I don’t think the problems we faced at Zandvoort were due to upgrades.”
“Now, we have another chance this weekend, and maybe conclude something different after Monza. But I’m confident it works the way we think it does.”
