George Russell calls for Mercedes to understand sudden loss of pace
Mercedes were McLaren’s closest rivals on the first day of running in Zandvoort. The W15 was very competitive in Friday practice, both in low and high-fuel simulations. However, Mercedes found themselves way off the pace on Sunday – leaving George Russell mystified.
Before the lights went out on Sunday, the Silver Arrows were expected to challenge for a podium.
After taking victories in Silverstone and Belgium, Mercedes were confident of keeping McLaren and Red Bull honest in Zandvoort.
However, this was not the case. Not only were McLaren in a different league, but Ferrari managed to unlock more pace from their SF-24 machines.
W15 suffers an unexpected drop in performance
Generally speaking, Mercedes have overcome the issues that plagued them at the beginning of 2024. The W15 is now a regular contender at the front, regardless of the conditions or circuit layout.
Because of this, George Russell was baffled by his pace on Sunday:
“Just surprised by the lack of pace, really don’t know where that disappeared to.
“Friday was good, Saturday was reasonable and looked on course for sort of a comfortable fourth or third prior to the race, and suddenly just went backwards.
“I don’t really know what happened,” Russell admitted post-race.
“We’ve been ahead of Ferrari in all of them, and suddenly, today, they looked really competitive.
“We need to understand what happened as until today we looked on course for a pretty half-decent weekend. As I said, it all went away from us, and I don’t know what happened.”
Early-season problems return for Mercedes
When the year began, the W15 was extremely susceptible to changes in track conditions – such as wind and temperature. This is partly why Mercedes frequently experienced huge swings in performance at the start of 2024.
It is unclear whether this old problem reappeared last weekend. The next few days will be spent understanding whether this is the case.
Regardless, the Dutch GP was a reminder for Mercedes of the razor-thin margins at the front. Despite their impressive progress in 2024, there is no room for complacency at Brackley.
McLaren and Ferrari have proven on numerous occasions they are capable of big results.
