Mercedes detail 'never-ending job' after new season experimenting

Mercedes

Mercedes detail 'never-ending job' after new season experimenting

Teams are learning at a rapid rate of knots

Ian Parkes

Saturday 2 April 2022 05:00

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Mercedes has revealed it conducted numerous experiments throughout the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend as it ploughs on with the never-ending task of sifting through the data in a bid to resolve its new-season issues.

The reigning eight-time F1 constructors' champions has so far found itself trailing behind Ferrari and Red Bull over the first two race weekends following the launch of the new aerodynamic regulations.

In Saudi Arabia, in particular, Mercedes opted for two different routes in qualifying with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, with the seven-time champion losing out dramatically as he failed to reach Q2 for the first time since 2009 on pure pace alone.

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According to trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin, the education for all the teams, especially with the new rules, never stops.

"As it always does, and even at the end of a season, if we look at the last few races of last season we are still learning with every race weekend," said Shovlin.

"We learn more about the car, more about the tyres and at the start of a season that learning rate is even higher.

"So, what we were doing this week is digesting that. There were a lot of experiments we were doing through the weekend.

"We still have got to go through some of that data and analysing that is then going to give us our approach for Melbourne [next weekend's Australian Grand Prix].

"It's a job that never really ends. You are always trying to look at what you can learn from a weekend and apply it to the next one.

"We know we need to accelerate that process to try and bring as much performance as we can as quickly as possible.”

In Jeddah, George Russell proved to be the best of the rest behind the Ferrari and Red Bull pairings but was nearly a second per lap off the pace during the race.