#F1 Mercedes Ferrari battle: Hidden reason for Hamilton’s success

MERCEDES has now won twice as many 2017 races as Ferrari — and Lewis Hamilton’s dominance of the British GP was total, the Ferraris destroying their tyres in trying to keep up.

So are we seeing Mercedes grind ahead in the development war as it better understands its intricate diva of a car? Or have we just had a run of circuits that happen to suit the Merc’s concept better than the Ferrari’s?

Perhaps a little of both. But there’s a third factor too — the FIA’s various rulings on technologies that each team has been using in attempting to gain a definitive advantage.

There have been three key rulings this season, one hurting Mercedes, two directed at Ferrari. They are:

THE pre-season banning of the hydraulically-operated heave spring Mercedes had conceived the W08 around.

TECHNICAL directive 22, issued on the Tuesday prior to Azerbaijan, but essentially underlining the pre-season TD04 banning of oil burning in the combustion chambers.

FERRARI being requested before the Austrian race weekend to stiffen the slot attached to the front of its floor.

To more fully understand how these rulings have impacted upon the competitive picture, it’s as well to recap on the key differences between the two cars.

The Mercedes W08 and Ferrari SF70-H are quite different in concept. The long wheelbase of the Mercedes is a significant factor in its better aerodynamic efficiency (ie for a given downforce it has lower drag).

The airflow around the shorter wheelbase Ferrari has less length in which to reattach efficiently as it makes its way around various obstacles, such as the wheels. However, the shorter wheelbase allows the physically smaller Ferrari to be lighter — and thus the team can use more ballast to vary its balance from one track to the next without as much compromise, giving it a bigger set-up window and more flexibility in getting the tyres to work front and rear. Mercedes can now use ballast (having been over the weight limit for the first four races), but still not as much as Ferrari (which is reportedly 7kg under the minimum weight limit, pre-ballast).

In terms of aerodynamics, the Mercedes is a low-rake car, the Ferrari an increasingly high-rake one (following the example set by Red Bull). Generally, the closer to the ground the leading edge of the floor runs, the more downforce is produced thanks to the principle of ground effect.

As the speed of the car increases, the downforce acting upon it increases, pressing the car down harder on its springs and reducing the ride height (and further increasing the downforce). As the speed decreases, so it rises on its springs and the aerodynamic load provided by the floor reduces again.

A high-rake car (with ride heights set to make it downward-sloping towards the front) amplifies the ground effect of the floor. The slope means the floor has a bigger expansion area behind the tiny gap between the floor’s leading edge and the track. The bigger this expansion area is, the faster the air is sucked through the gap and the greater the downforce.

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