Mercedes hopes that its performance in Las Vegas will contribute to the development of its car for 2025
Mercedes believes that its "strange" domination during the Las Vegas Grand Prix could help them solve the consistency issues of their F1 car for 2025.
After struggling to remain competitive since the summer break, Mercedes surprised in Las Vegas with a one-two finish, George Russell ahead of Lewis Hamilton to give the team its first 1-2 victory since Brazil 2022.
This victory, the fourth of the season for Mercedes and the first since the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of July, was partly attributed to the cooler temperatures, according to the team principal, Toto Wolff.
« It’s related to the cold, explained Toto Wolff. « We can clearly establish a correlation between our good performances. We have been strong at Silverstone, Spa, and here in Las Vegas. It’s all about keeping the car in its optimal zone and the tires in their ideal performance window.
« This shows that the car can be very fast. Sometimes we were two seconds faster than our competitors when George was pushing, and the rest of the time, he was managing his pace.
The cold: the trigger element?
Toto Wolff added: “When you lose grip and it’s hot, you’re constantly stepping out of the optimal window. Here, on the contrary, it helped to maintain tire temperature.”
« There is clearly a pattern: some teams excel in the cold and extract a lot of performance, while others shine in hot weather. In Singapore, for example, McLaren dominated and controlled the race at will. Finding a balance for next year will be crucial.
The head of Mercedes described as strange the fact that Mercedes did not suffer from graining issues (uneven tire wear) that penalized some of their rivals, notably Ferrari. We could attack at will. There was no graining phase, neither on the medium tires nor on the hards, he specified.
« Charles (Leclerc) repeatedly tried to put pressure on George, who defended himself very well. But Leclerc eventually lost pace after a few laps. We did not see any signs of graining or degradation.
The data collected in Las Vegas will be essential to help Mercedes understand the current weaknesses of the W15.
« This result is really important. Over the course of a weekend, we normally observe fluctuations: doing well in one session, less well in another. But here, we were ahead in every session. This provides us with a lot of valuable data to define our ideal performance zone and understand how to achieve it more often.
