The Woking-based company’s latest advancements have been attributed to a stronger correlation between simulation and on-track performance, according to Mercedes Trackside Engineering Chief Andrew Shovlin. Mercedes made significant improvements in Imola after a challenging start to the season. These were followed by additional advancements in Monaco, Montreal, and Spielberg. Abruptly, the W15 began to perform at a more consistent level across a variety of circuit types and weather circumstances.
Lewis Hamilton scored his first podium of 2024 at Barcelona, while George Russell got pole and finished third in Montreal. Russell won Mercedes’ first race in more than a year in the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday. Mercedes’ technical track director, Andrew Shovlin, proposed that recent advances were mostly attributable to improved correlation between the Brackley simulator and the course.
The automobile is acting more like a regular now. I believe that our correlation on the simulator is now quite good. In this sense, you handle each circuit independently. We have improved the machine; some of these improvements are mechanical, so we don’t have to report them [to the FIA]. On each track we visit, though, making several improvements to the vehicle is a different task. We’ve had this situation for the past five or six races. And in order for everything to function as a whole, you have to somehow adjust it.
Prior to it, though, our car would balance when the wind or track temperature changed significantly. For this reason, even though we might have been gorgeous on a Friday, we encountered difficulties on Saturday. The equipment is acting a little more normally now that we’ve made the necessary adjustments. Cars that oversteer in one place and understeer in another do not get complaints from other drivers.
If an automobile issue is widespread, it can be easily resolved; if understeer is present everywhere, it can be addressed. Therefore, working on it is undoubtedly simpler. “The most important thing, though, is that the correlation on the simulator has increased. Previously, we had no chance because even a five-degree change in track temperature or a thirty-degree wind rotation might knock you off balance. “It should come as no surprise that the simulator struggled to capture every single effect.”