Mercedes confirms findings after investigation into Brazilian GP struggles
Mercedes has explained why both Kimi Antonelli and George Russell complained that their cars felt “broken” during the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The team says the W17 was “just below the tyre temperature window”, resulting in “very strange and unusual car beahviour.”
Mercedes: Tyre temperature the cause of Brazilian GP struggles
Antonelli and Russell struggled to get to grips with the damp conditions in Brazil, with Mercedes having no answer for Lando Norris or Red Bull on Sunday at Interlagos.
Despite showing promising pace at various points of the day, Antonelli quickly fell out of race-winning contention, while Russell was only briefly in the conversation before his spin in the pit lane.
Throughout the race, both drivers complained that something felt wrong with their cars, but these problems have been explained away by Mercedes deputy team principal, Bradley Lord.
Speaking on Mercedes’ social media debrief, Lord said: “A few of you have asked about some of the issues we experienced in Brazil during the race, and it was a really topsy-turvy race.
“It’s not very often that you spin off on a formation lap and almost make contact with a barrier, that you spin in the pit lane with the other car, that you have several incidents on track as well, and nonetheless manage to come home fourth and fifth.
“There were periods of the race in Brazil: the first inter tyre at the start, and then during a large part of that dry soft tyre stint, that we actually were the fastest car on track.
“First of all, with Kimi in the inter conditions, and then particularly with George and the soft tyre period. Kimi obviously had had a spin, flat-spotted all four tyres, and so his pace was somewhat limited.”
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Turning to the feeling shared by both drivers of having a broken car, he added: “But we did really struggle as we went onto that dry soft tyre, and then in the final inter stint as well, with a car that was very, very tricky to drive, very oversteery, and in the soft tyre stint in particular, with very low tyre temperatures.
“That meant both of the drivers, and indeed other drivers in the field, actually thought there was something broken with the car.
“But looking at it, it looked like we were just below the tyre temperature window.
“Sometimes popping into it, but then dropping back out of it in the damp conditions, and that’s what was causing the very strange and unusual car behaviour.”
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