Mercedes has explained how a gust of wind contributed to a disappointing qualifying performance for Lewis Hamilton in Miami last weekend.
Hamilton set the second-fastest time in Q2 but slumped to ninth on the grid in Q3. While most drivers improved their times in the later session Hamilton lapped over four tenths of a second slower.The team’s head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin said a combination of a tailwind and the sensitivity of the tyres was enough to badly compromise Hamilton’s only lap on the soft rubber in Q3.
“We were pretty pleased with the lap time he did in Q2 and hoping to to repeat that in Q3,” Shovlin explained in a video released by the team.
“It wasn’t really an issue with the grip initially, and the start of the lap was actually quite good. He was unlucky in that as he came around to turn 11, he got a gust of wind that was from behind.
“What that does is actually drops the amount of downforce on the car quite significantly. So as he went into that corner had quite a big oversteer. That then puts temperature [heat] in the tyres.
“Once that temperature’s in, that’s a very tight, twisty section, there’s no way for them to cool down and that’s what then causes the loss of grip. So had it not been for the gust of wind, it would have been a better lap for sure.”
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The team switched Hamilton to the harder medium tyre compound for his final run in Q3. “The other thing that cost us was that we only had one new soft tyre by that point, so it wasn’t like he could have another go and try and repeat it,” Shovlin explained. “So it’s frustrating because by that point the car was working well for him. He was obviously driving it very well, and a shame that we couldn’t repeat that lap when it mattered.”
Mercedes took the unusual step of using a set of mediums in Q3 as they’d exhausted their supply of softs.
“We had a look in FP1, did a lap on [softs], we weren’t unusual in doing that. But what was a bit different was in Q1 we decided to do two new sets, so we actually did three runs with both drivers, a used and two new.
“That was [partly] because we’d struggled the day before in the sprint qualifying. We wanted to make sure the drivers had time to understand what the car was doing, but it put us one set down to the other. So then when you finally get to Q3, we only had one remaining.
“We did actually do a run on the medium tyre [in Q3]. We had seen it was pretty competitive the day before. We didn’t think it was quicker, but for Lewis actually, because the first the first round had gone so badly with the gust of wind, that medium was actually the time that that he qualified on.
“We used it because we weren’t seeing a big single-lap drop, so we weren’t too worried about having that lap on the tyre come the race on Sunday.”
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2024 Miami Grand Prix
- McLaren had superior pace before Verstappen’s damage in Miami – Norris
- Sainz ‘struggles to understand’ why he got penalty when Perez didn’t
- Alonso’s unusual brake problem and more unheard Miami team radio
- McLaren’s Miami upgrade success points to even stronger form in coming races
- Norris expects more wins this year and believes “100%” in 2025 title bid
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
9th May 2024, 8:14
What’s next, an errant electromagnetic wave?
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
9th May 2024, 8:24
Anyrhing he can blaim it on bar demotivation it seems
SteveP
9th May 2024, 8:44
Massive demotivation being the cause of Ham being virtually glued to Perez’s gearbox for many laps then?
One thing I do question is why a ground effect car is so susceptible to wind from the “wrong” direction.
Red Pill (@redpill)
9th May 2024, 9:04
SteveP, you keep posting right before I finish my posts : )
Ground effect cars are so susceptible to wind from the “wrong” direction because the flow needed to keep the ground effect is disturbed, maybe I call it broken.
The cars aero package is so dialed in and specific to certain conditions to obtain the calculated ground effect that the engineers want around the track. The area behind the car and in front of the car very much matter on how the air moves through the aero package. You have a vacuum draw effect, when a gust hits the area where the car is, it can disturb that draw of flow through the car, and the ground effect gets disturb and can essentially stop/reduce the flow and the car is not as sticky to the track as it could be and gets light. The reverse can also happen
The MB chassis seems that it needs to work properly under tighter tolerances (smaller window) than the others teams aero packages. Making it more sensitive to any changes & variances happening on the track.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
9th May 2024, 12:24
ground effect cars are nothing special, they are just designed to limit the amount of air underneath the car, because of the limits imposed on the cars, designers have to use induced turbulence, ie vortices to help the air move more smoother (less ‘random’ turbulence) out the back of the car.
so, really, no, the closer to the ground you are, the less the wind affects you, what was affecting the drivers was the poor tire selection and drops/elevations in down force from the wings which were experiencing strong differences in air pressure. on tracks like Miami, its more about ‘mechanical grip’ if you will, or rather the more obvious mechanical aspects of the car. Maybe why Red Bull didn’t pull ahead massively, but maybe thats more down to someone being super conservative as a strategy and then incurring damage to their car, and then maybe not even trying to win the race.
Nick T,
9th May 2024, 12:33
All the cars susceptible to crosswinds. The Mercedes has never shown itself to be anymore sensitive to crosswinds than any other car. The only team that was especially known for wind sensitivity was the pre-2024 Williams. But that was bound to be the case when you have the least downforce of any car on the grid.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
9th May 2024, 12:43
@Nick T
with ground effects, the car is the wing, and the lower the car, the better it is at creating a virtual vacuum between it and the surface of the ground, the more down force the car achieves, over the whole of itself.
the front and rear also have ‘wings’. However, in ground-effect, the pressure of the air is more important than ‘wind’ direction. Sure, any change in air pressure affects the ground-effect. But, the wings on the front and rear of the F1 cars, much like Slats/Flaps, these face the in the direction of travel the car. imo, wind affects these down force generators far more, given the shape, direction, and placement.
Of course the wind affects both aspects, I would like to highlight that the tires were not lasting even half a lap at Miami. In this case, the coefficient of friction with respect to what the tires provide, is dropping off faster than any real wind condition, and this is the more true determinant concerning handling/error generating function.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
9th May 2024, 11:57
The tires are garbage and make the handling of the car horrible. By the looks of it they were lasting almost half a lap in qualifying.
Nick T.
9th May 2024, 12:53
I understand the concept (it’s essentially a land based flying wing concept in many ways). They are less sensitive to wind than pre-ground fx cars in the past, but wind still does affect them. And my sole point was that we’ve seen no evidence that the Mercedes is anymore sensitive to crosswinds than any other car.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
10th May 2024, 15:45
I would just say, the tires are far more the determining factor. Because they looked to be lasting about 1/3 of a lap in Miami in qualifying form.
Whose to say Pirelli won’t just start handing out better tires to certain drivers in order to push certain sponsor agendas. This is the problem with a sole tire supplier, just like in MotoGP when Casey Stoner destroyed Rossi in 2007, and then in 2008 Bridgestone moved over to Rossi, and Yamaha had unparalleled success for the next 5 years. Until Marc Marquez showed up, and then eventually Ducati threatened, other guys, etc, and then Michelin came in and now the Japanese (of which Bridgestone is also) makes are no where to be found. Yes, the power has gone up, but you have to understand that the control tire is about controlling interests in the sport, and right now it stinks in F1, given how horrible the performance is of the current generation of Pirelli.
Michelin or Bridgestone need to come back to F1 or else its just gonna be a show for the highest bidders.
mars
9th May 2024, 19:56
@SteveP
“why a ground effect car is so susceptible to wind”
The simple answer is: For effective use of ground effects, one should have to separate fast flowing air under the car from (relatively) slower flowing air around the car. In the old days (late 70s and early 80s) f1 cars had side skirts to separate air flow under the car body and around the body of the car. FIA banned side skirts in 1981 due to safety concerns. Nowadays, instead of plastic skirts, we have air barriers thanks to advanced aerodynamic techniques, but as you can guess, air barriers are weak, and a stong side wind can easyly disturb air barriers, as a result, fast moving under body air flow interference with slow moving outer air flow and reduces the efficiency of downforce created by bottom plate of the car.
Luke_213
9th May 2024, 22:09
Thanks Mars
A simple and instructive explanation.
Red Pill (@redpill)
9th May 2024, 8:49
He still finished in 6th place overall and better than teammate.
Still, MB needs to do better; they’re chassis is getting heavily beaten by McLaren with the same PU and now has twice as many WCC points as MB; and they’re quali strategy & set up for them is lacking. Not a good look.
notagrumpyfan
9th May 2024, 10:17
Sometimes it seems that MB has done a major reorganisation by moving most of the staff to the ‘excuse department’ ;)
BasCB (@bascb)
9th May 2024, 11:26
Good thing there’s not tram / metro running underneath the stradium, eh.
grat
10th May 2024, 4:44
That was the early days of the Singapore GP. There was a bit of electrical infrastructure under a section of track that would occasionally scramble the transmission.
Nick T,
9th May 2024, 11:11
I thought it was his brave experimental setups…
Mayrton
9th May 2024, 11:43
I am totally confused now as well. There are so many different reasons mentioned nowadays. The entire spectrum except for one that is never heard.
SteveR (@stever)
9th May 2024, 13:20
All these excuses are starting to sound like ‘the dog ate my homework’. Mercedes, it’s getting rather old…..
Colin
9th May 2024, 14:02
So he farted in the car?
PlosslF1
9th May 2024, 14:24
You can tell a lot of people didn’t read the article and came straight to the Hamilton bashing section ;)
MichaelN
9th May 2024, 15:31
Yeah, it’s not really a problem with the car. It’s pretty normal for a slide to give a temperature spike in the tyres. And when you have that at such an inopportune moment as Hamilton apparently had, it can easily cost some time through a few corners on these ultra-fragile and sensitive Pirelli tyres. This wouldn’t be much of an issue if the tyres weren’t awful at 98C, great at 100C, and awful again at 102C. Pirelli keeps saying they want to widen the operating window on their product, and almost 15 years in they still haven’t managed to do that.
Nick T.
9th May 2024, 15:46
Anytime a team or driver issues consistently dubious excuses for driver and/or team, people do this:
-Krack & Stroll probably being the worst of all
-Perez and quali + race last season
-Ricciardo’s excuses this season
-Norris & quali problems
-Williams & Sargeant
-Ferrari strategy excuses
-Mercedes inconsistency
So, this is hardly anything special.
Mayrton
11th May 2024, 13:53
But it is, if you take it personally. And they need not despair as there is quite some deleting on this site so the majority of negatively framed comments won’t reach them anyway (when it’s aimed at Lewis).
FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
9th May 2024, 15:14
Reading many of the posts above, there are so many ground effects experts right here that Red Bull should have no trouble whatsoever in replacing Newey. That must be a great relief to Horner and the team.
Nick T.
9th May 2024, 15:48
No one claimed to be a F1 level ground effects expert. It’s completely fair for others to discuss the well defined concepts behind ground effects work. By the same token, you might as well disqualify every fan who hasn’t driven an F1 car many, many times from speculating on driver struggles.
FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
9th May 2024, 19:13
I have no doubt that you’re not a ground effects expert but several of the other posters seem to think that they are.
Nick T.
9th May 2024, 22:39
I didn’t think you referring to me. My only point was that one not need be an aerodynamicist to speculate on how much a gust of wind would impact this gen. of cars versus past generations.
Either way, I appreciate/mostly agree with your skepticism of when any of us discuss the technical side of F1 as it’s mostly in great ignorance (though I’ve see 99% of us do it some extent or others at some point). : )
Nick T.
9th May 2024, 22:46
seen*
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th May 2024, 23:08
Well, it’s not the first time I’ve heard people blaming gusts of wind!
Nick T.
9th May 2024, 23:24
Indeed. It can be a valid excuse and can also just be an excuse. Jolyon Palmer and Coulthard love to list their own favorite excuses and they listed wind as one. DC said, with both less sensors and sensitivity but, above all, onboard cameras usually being limited to just a few cars during the ‘90s, he could get away w/a little bit more in the excuse department.
Dane
10th May 2024, 0:34
I remember 2015 when Rosberg blames a “gust of wind” for an error in Austin that lead to Hamilton passing him. Somewhere in Monaco Nico must be cracking a smile.
Electroball76
11th May 2024, 14:44
There were also leaves on the line, snow on the roof, and the distant sounds of a crested woodpecker.
André
11th May 2024, 23:07
…lol
I almost want to hike there.