Mercedes consider their “unusual” dominance of the Las Vegas Grand Prix might assist them discover solutions to make their F1 2025 automobile extra constant.
After largely struggling for competitiveness because the summer time break, Mercedes unexpectedly dominated in Las Vegas as George Russell headed dwelling Lewis Hamilton for the crew’s first 1-2 since Brazil 2022.
The win was Mercedes’ fourth of the season however their first because the Belgian Grand Prix on the finish of July. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff suspects colder temperatures in Vegas partly defined their robust kind.
“It is chilly. I believe that clearly you may correlate the place we have been robust,” Wolff defined.
“We have been robust in Silverstone, we have been robust in Spa, after which right here in Las Vegas. I believe it is simply protecting the automobile in its candy spot, the tyres within the optimum window.
“It exhibits that the automobile could be very, very fast. We have been two seconds faster than our competitors at instances, when George was pushing, and for the remainder of the day he was simply managing his tempo.”
He added: “While you break traction and it is sizzling, then you definately type of swing out of the window on a regular basis. And while you break traction right here, that was truly useful to maintain the temperatures up on the time.
“So clearly, there’s a sample that some groups actually love the chilly and extract a variety of efficiency. And there are some groups which have been so robust when it was sizzling.
“Singapore, the McLarens for instance, they dominated and so they simply managed it in the best way they wished. So, yeah, it will be vital to discover a steadiness for subsequent yr.”
Wolff stated it was “unusual” Mercedes didn’t undergo from graining points which hampered a few of their rivals, notably Ferrari.
“We have been able to pushing every time we wished to. There was no graining interval, neither on the medium, nor on the onerous,” he stated. “Charles tried a number of instances to place stress on George, which he defended nice.
“I do not know what the end result would have been of that, however he fell off [the cliff], Leclerc, after a number of laps. He could not maintain the tempo, we did not ever see the signal of graining nor degradation.”
Wolff says the info collected from Vegas will likely be essential in serving to Mercedes perceive the present weaknesses of the W15.
“This one is a extremely vital consequence,” he stated. “You may have fluctuations over the weekend, after which usually you may see we have been good right here [in practice], then we have been not so good in that session.
“However right here, each single session, we have been forward. So a number of good knowledge that enable us to say a minimum of we all know what our candy spot is, and that is the place we must be. It’s then looking for out how we will hit that focus on extra typically.”