TECH WEEKLY: 3 years on the bounce – Why Mercedes still can’t shake their downforce issues

Mercedes badly under-performed through the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend with a car which was particularly difficult through the fast corners of the first sector. This was the case regardless of which rear wing was used.

In qualifying, the W15 was the slowest car of all between Turns 6-10, the series of sweeps which are very fast but not flat-out. Lewis Hamilton described the car through there as follows: “We have pretty bad bouncing which we’ve not been able to fix… We tried every set-up change but we just can’t get rid of the bouncing.