Tech Analysis | Why it is inappropriate to say Mercedes are back

Despite another Verstappen win, Red Bull didn’t seem to have the quickest car last weekend (similar to what happened in Imola), with McLaren and Mercedes close behind and quicker at certain stages of the race. Ferrari had a weekend to forget, with an abysmal performance in all conditions and additional engine problems on Leclerc’s side. Let’s try to have a closer look at what happened this weekend. 

Red Bull with the best execution  

Starting from Red Bull, the team was conscious since Friday that Gilles Villeneuve Circuit wouldn’t be the best for their car. 

For this reason, during FP1, they decided to apply sensors on the front suspension tie rod to evaluate how the suspension was able to absorb the oscillations of the asphalt and the kerbs even at different riding heights and for different values of stiffness. In addition, they placed a small camera to observe the behaviour of the suspension when it oscillated from a visual point of view. 

After the Monaco Grand Prix, where the RB20 massively struggled on kerbs and bumps, the Milton Keynes team decided to gather useful data to understand this problem. They tried to really understand the dynamics of the front suspension at different roll angles. 

This kind of work massively helped, as Red Bull seemed to struggle less than expected, with Verstappen able to get the soft tyres into the right working window (despite the stiff set-up) during qualifying and eventually get the same lap time as Russell. 

Moreover, the team also brought a small aerodynamic update on the rear wing: at the transition between the endplate and the main plane, a small vortex generator appeared (red arrow). This new element aims to generate a small vortex that improves the transition between the two states of air pressure at that point, improving the overall efficiency of the rear wing. This is a micro-aerodynamic update, which does not lead to huge gains but demonstrates how, in F1, every small bit is important.

The team seemed to have found a temporary solution to their mechanical problems, making the car less stiff on the kerbs. The RB20's great efficiency made Red Bull extremely quick in all the straights.

These choices certainly helped, but the Verstappen factor really played a crucial role during the race: the Dutch Champion was extremely consistent throughout the race despite not being the quickest at certain stages (for example, at the end of the stint on the intermediates).

However, Verstappen was the only driver who was able to make the car work in all conditions and with all tyres, while Perez had a disastrous weekend. 

Consequently, the late close-in by Ferrari and McLaren on Red Bull could be a threat, especially for the Constructors’ Championship. Max underlined the importance of having two drivers scoring points if they want to keep the lead during the post-race interview: “But of course, naturally, we always want the two cars to be out there. And I also have no doubt that that will change very soon again. We just need to work on our car, to be honest, to make it a bit easier to drive and to feel a bit more comfortable. And then I'm sure that we have both cars back up there like we had at the beginning of the season."

These words certainly underline the fact that the RB20 doesn’t seem to be on rails on high kerbs and bumpy asphalts, but it could clearly return to its top performance on more traditional circuits, where the ability to generate a high level of downforce at low ride heights will come into play. 

McLaren had the best tyre wear

Coming onto McLaren, for the fourth race weekend in a row (from Miami onwards), the team seemed to have the quickest car among the top teams. Despite this, the Woking team couldn’t seize the moment when the safety car entered the track, even though the timing was very tight. 

Apart from this, the very loose and smooth Montreal tarmac and the low temperatures for the whole weekend favoured the MCL38: the Papaya car was able to put the tyres (both slick and wet compounds) in the right operating window very quickly and could keep them alive longer.

This advantage was particularly evident during the first stint on the inters when both Norris and Piastri managed their tyres very early into the race before setting the pace. The fact Norris could stay out a few laps longer says everything.

Moreover, the MCL38 seemed to have found a very good balance between aerodynamics and mechanics: the team decided to adopt a medium-downforce rear wing, which was the best choice in terms of efficiency (during qualifying, the MCL38 had 10 km/h less on the straights compared to the SF-24 and RB20). Together with a soft mechanical setup, this gave the drivers enough grip out of the slow corners and in wet conditions.

This significant advantage allowed Norris to pass both Russell and Verstappen as the track dried out before setting a phenomenal pace and opening an 8-second gap in a very few laps. This pace really eluded Norris that he could have won the race, as underlined by the Brit in the post race interviews: "We should have won the race today and we didn't. It's frustrating. We had the pace. Probably not in the dry at the end, but we should have won today, it's as simple as that. We didn't do a good enough job as a team to box when we should have done and not get stuck behind the safety cars, so I don't think it was lucky or unlucky.”

Despite the unlucky timing and the missed call, the Woking team still proved to be able to fight Red Bull on very different tracks, while they still need a bit of experience at the top level. Barcelona will be indicative of the MCL38’s pure performance compared to the RB20: the car still seems to be a little bit behind for what concerts the mechanical grip, but the upcoming layouts should really suit McLaren, as high downforce and tyre wear will be defining factors for the next triple-header. 

Did Mercedes miss an opportunity?

Mercedes had a positive weekend, although it’s still inappropriate to say they’re back at the top level. The new font wing introduced last time out in Monaco seems to have completely changed (in a positive way) the overall balance of the car, improving the grip of the front axle and making the W15 more balanced.

The new front wing has a different design in all its components, especially in the last flap. The drawing below shows that the last flap no longer has that carbon "thread" as in the previous version (which was said to have been designed to seek the Y250 vortex, useful for sealing the bottom from the turbulence coming from the front wheel), but a chord increased along the entire length of the flap (red arrows).

Furthermore, this solution also has a different attachment of the nose to the second flap, with a less flat and more "stepped" shape, to better support the wing and push the air towards the bodywork differently (orange arrow). Finally, a last substantial change is in the layout of the first two flaps, with the mainplane having a much smaller chord than the previous version, while the second flap has a very increased chord (blue arrow). The main goal of this solution is to significantly increase the load generated at the front, especially in fast corners (where the W15 was very unstable), while radically changing the flow of air directed to the rest of the car. 

The very low temperatures during the weekend could have helped Mercedes, too: since the beginning of the year, the W15 has proved to be a car with a very tight window and seemed to be working pretty well with low temperatures and on low-grip asphalts (just like McLaren). 

It remains to be understood whether the team was able to make the car work around Montreal thanks to the atmospheric conditions, whether their problems are still there, or whether the updates widened the working window, allowing it to be competitive on a larger scale of circuits. Barcelona and Austria will give us a clear picture of their performance, as underlined by Toto Wolff in his post-race interview with Sky Sports: “I hope so. We pass it on, and it will be a good test because it has all sorts of corners, so yeah, this is a bit of an unusual one.”

A race to forget for Ferrari

Last but not least, Ferrari had a weekend to forget after the spectacular win last time out in Monaco. 0 points were scored, and two cars retired. 

The SF-24 has proved to suffer massively on low-grip tarmacs and with very low temperatures (as happened in China), not putting enough heat into the tyres and consequently struggling, especially in qualifying. 

Moreover, the engine problems on Leclerc’s side made the race even tougher, as he lost a lot of time on the straights and couldn’t keep up with the pace of the cars around. 

A lot needs to be done and understood, as Sainz underlined after the race in his usual post-race interview: “I think Canada was a bit of a one-off, a bit of a special one. And we need to understand what happened as a team. There was clearly something the others were doing in qualifying with the tyres to prepare them better. And for us in the race, really, we were just stuck in the midfield, and we were not able to make any progress.”

In conclusion, the Canadian Grand Prix was one of the most spectacular races of the whole season. Three teams fought for the victory, and the weather made the race even more unpredictable. Despite this, Barcelona will provide a clearer picture of the real differences in performance among Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes, hoping to have such close battles for the rest of the season.