Mercedes has explained more about the handling anomalies its drivers experienced while securing the constructors’ title in Brazil. Deputy team principal Bradley Lord said the team’s investigation pointed largely to difficulties keeping the tyres within their operating window in cool, damp conditions, particularly after the move to dry soft tyres.
From the lead to concerns about the suspension
Andrea Kimi Antonelli started second and took advantage of Lando Norris’ poor launch to lead, building a margin over the opening 15 laps. After Norris switched to slicks, Antonelli followed on lap 18 but began reporting a feeling that the car was pulling to one side and puzzling suspension behaviour.
Two laps later the rear snapped under braking for Turn 1, sending him into the run-off. He lost the lead and eventually finished fifth. George Russell also spun at the narrow pit exit before recovering to fourth.
Antonelli said afterwards that the loss of rear stability had come without warning. The car had felt strange as soon as the soft tyres went on, and he wanted the team to establish what had happened.
The team points to the tyre operating window
In the team’s post-race debrief, Lord linked temperature and handling changes. He said Antonelli had flat-spotted all four tyres in his spin, restricting his subsequent pace. Both cars were difficult to drive and strongly oversteery during the dry soft-tyre phase and the final intermediate stint.
Lord said temperatures were particularly low on the softs. The tyres would sometimes enter the window and then fall back below it in the damp conditions. The changing behaviour made both Mercedes drivers, along with others in the field, suspect that something had broken.
Strong phases alongside costly incidents
Lord noted that bringing both cars home fourth and fifth was an achievement in a chaotic race that included a formation-lap scare and spins in the pitlane and on track. He also said Mercedes had been very quick at points, including the initial intermediate stint and a large part of the soft-tyre stint.
