Mercedes admits there are problems with the correlation

Despite the optimistic expectations that Mercedes talked about before the start of the season, the performance of the W15 car leaves a lot to be desired, and so far the team can compete on an equal footing not only with Red Bull Racing, but also with Ferrari .

Mercedes technical director James Allison admitted that the problems may be due to a lack of accurate correlation between the calculations and research the team carries out at their base in Brackley and the actual scene on track.

“Every year, every team always has some difficulty with correlation,” Ellison said. – These kinds of difficulties, discrepancies between what you see at the grassroots and what we see on the track, will always exist, because we can say that at the grassroots we have limited possibilities to reproduce reality.

This is not the same as driving on a real track on real asphalt, where the picture is infinitely more complex and there are countless different nuances. On the simulator we reproduce simplified models, although this is a quite powerful tool that allows you to choose one direction or another of the overall development. But there are always some disadvantages associated with correlation.

Overall, the models we create and the computer technologies we use to do them are incredibly good because they help us stay on track and try to improve. But the devil is always in the details.

When we work with digital models, we can achieve certain improvements in balance at both high and low speeds, because we can take into account certain differences between what we see on the track and what we see in the virtual world. When we correct for this difference we can get a more accurate picture, allowing us to identify chassis deficiencies that we think are holding us back.”

So far, the best result of the Mercedes drivers remains 5th place, occupied by George Russell in Bahrain, and in Australia none of the team’s cars reached the finish, but due to problems of a different kind, unrelated to correlation. Lewis Hamilton’s W15 suffered an engine failure and Russell crashed the car two laps from the finish while battling Fernando Alonso for sixth position. After three rounds of the season, Mercedes is in 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship behind Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren.