Mercedes has admitted it remains unsure whether the team’s latest floor has introduced unintended traits that have been behind its recent dip in results in Formula 1.
The German marque seemed to have got a grasp on its previous issues under this ruleset as it headed into the summer break having seized three wins in four rounds.
However, Mercedes has endured more challenging outings since the campaign resumed, with neither driver in podium contention at the Dutch and Italian Grands Prix.
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has conceded that the W15’s car balance has changed in a negative manner since the season restarted at Zandvoort last month.
“We are able to extract a single lap, which is in principle good news,” Wolff said. “But then the balance isn’t in a way good enough to keep the tyres happy for a race.
“That has been the topic since Zandvoort. It has been more on the edge, more difficult to find the right balance.”
Mercedes pondered prior to the Monza race weekend whether the tweaked floor that was bolted on at the Belgian Grand Prix has triggered unwanted characteristics.
Having abandoned using the update on a weather-disrupted weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, Mercedes has spent the past two rounds conducting test comparisons.
But despite choosing to run the element deeper into both weekends, Mercedes is no closer to distinguishing whether the part is responsible for its ongoing problems.
“Over the last three races, we’ve done various compares of the packages and principally comparing the floor,” Mercedes Head of Trackside Engineering Andrew Shovlin said.
“What we are confident in is that it’s generating the load that we expect.
“The more difficult question that we need to answer is: is there anything subtle in the handling characteristics that this package might be doing that we haven’t anticipated?”
Shovlin has highlighted how the F1 calendar visiting venues with alternative circuit characteristics has complicated Mercedes’ desire to acquire a clear cut resolution.
“It’s quite difficult to assess, because the car will perform differently track-to-track, some tracks it’s been working very well, he explained.
“Other circuits we’ve struggled with the balance of the car regardless of the aerodynamic spec.
“It may well be that’s just the normal variation from track-to-track, but that’s what we’re going to be looking at over the next few days.
“On top of that there are other updates that we’re bringing into the system.
“There’s quite a lot for us to consider, but we do have a lot of data now, and we can go off and use the next few days to learn what we can from that.”
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