Mercedes struggled to find ways to improve during the Belgian Grand Prix, admits Andrew Shovelin, the team’s Trackside engineering director.
“If you look at what Lewis [Hamilton] did, where he went onto the dry tyre lap earlier, it looks like we were a bit conservative in that cross. That’s about the only place that there was any opportunity in the race to have finished further up,” Shovelin told GPBlog.
But the team isn’t dwelling on that single strategic decision.
“Our focus is more on car pace,” he explained. “Why we weren’t able to perform better yesterday, why we weren’t quicker in the race because we were dropping back from Max and Charles.”
The race ended with George Russell finishing fifth after starting sixth, managing to overtake Alex Albon. Rookie Kimi Antonelli, who started from the pit lane, finished 16th.
Balance Issues Holding Mercedes Back
When asked if Mercedes was struggling with balance issues, Shovelin didn’t deny it.
“Well, that’s what we need to understand.”
The team’s performance has been puzzling compared to their early season form.
“What we had early on in the year was a car that was working well at pretty much every circuit. We were generally fighting for the second row of the grid, if not the front row,” Shovelin said.
He mentioned that while recent technical directives wouldn’t improve stability, the current wing configuration had worked well previously in Montreal.
That race in Canada saw Russell take his first win of the season.
“The fact is, other people are able to balance their cars a bit better,” Shovelin admitted. “There’s no doubt a solution in there for us.”
The team is now looking at all the design changes they’ve made over recent races.
“It isn’t just the front wing that’s changed, and I’m sure there’s more that we can learn,” he explained. “That’s what the focus is on over the next few races, trying to pinpoint why we’re getting this entry stability issue.”
Shovelin made it clear that the technical directive on the front wing might be pushing development in the wrong direction. Even when they’ve adjusted the car’s aerodynamic balance, the instability remains.
“So as I said, there’s something for us to learn,” he concluded.
