Mercedes reveal date for new floor update after reverting to old spec in Baku

Falling off the pace after their pre-summer break resurgence, Mercedes are pinning their hopes on a new floor that they’ll introduce in Austin.

For the next in Singapore, though, it’s another race with the old-spec floor they reverted to in Baku.

Mercedes pin hopes on United States GP floor

Mercedes enjoyed a purple patch in the run-up to Formula 1’s summer break, winning three of the last four races which prompted talk of a challenge for a top-three spot on the season’s podium.

But in a season in which several teams, including championship leaders Red Bull, have made missteps with their upgrades, Mercedes were unsure about the new floor that they brought to the Belgian Grand Prix. So much so, they reverted to the old floor after the Friday practice.

The new floor was back on the W15 at the Dutch Grand Prix and, happy with the initial feel on the Friday, they kept it on for the rest of the weekend only for the drivers to finish seventh and eight with George Russell ahead of Hamilton.

Again falling short of the podium in Italy where Hamilton was the best-placed Mercedes driver in fifth place, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said they had to ask themselves the difficult question of whether there is “anything subtle in the handling characteristics that this package might be doing that we haven’t anticipated.”

The team ultimately made the call not to run the problematic floor in Baku, reverting to the pre-Spa design. But while Russell did finish third in Azerbaijan, it was an inherited podium with the driver on course for P5 before Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez’s late-race crash.

Key information in F1 2024

👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ standings after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

👉 F1 schedule: When is the next F1 race and where is it being held?

Wolff revealed the drivers will have that same floor at the next race in Singapore before Mercedes debut a new design at the United States Grand Prix.

“It’s not like this was night and day,” the team principal told the media in Baku. “We still suffered from the same balance performance that we had on the new floor.

“So in Singapore, we have the same one that’s going to shift over and we need to race that. But from Austin onwards, we’ll probably go to a new specification.”

And by new, he means “new new spec”, not the Spa spec. But what gets raced will be decided after practice.

“I think we need to go over the data,” he added. “You go for a new new when the new didn’t work properly, but the old one doesn’t work either. So the old new or new new, we don’t know yet.”

Last season Mercedes bolted a new floor onto the W14 at the United States GP with Hamilton second at the chequered flag before he was disqualified for a technical infringement with excessive wear on his skid block.

Mercedes sit fourth in the Constructors’ Championship with seven races remaining, 116 points behind Ferrari and 227 ahead of Aston Martin.

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