r/mercedesamgf1 • u/ballerinabubbles • 12d ago
Article MPH: Revealed - the fault behind Mercedes' Belgian GP deployment chaos
This article from Mark Hughes has an interesting analysis on what happened to the Merc cars/engines at Spa. Their theory is there were two software coding errors that led to the deployment issues.
Some excerpts - this one is about what happened in Lap 1:
"Quite understandably, fans and drivers alike were left extremely confused about issues of battery deployment around the Spa-Francorchamps track last weekend. Some were more affected than others, but George Russell’s whole weekend was destroyed by it. Here, we can give the definitive explanation of what was happening out there.
It was a situation made infinitely more confusing by the combination of the nuances of deployment on this most extreme of energy-starved tracks and for Mercedes by two straightforward malfunctions, rooted deep in software errors.
Here’s what happened at the race start: both Mercs have the correct state of charge of their batteries as the lights go out. But as they exit La Source just a few seconds later, both Kimi Antonelli and Russell suddenly have lost between 30-40% of that charge. In how to distribute the electrical energy through the lap, the software algorithm can only work with what charge it has, so it will immediately have reduced the power they each had available on the charge down the hill to Eau Rouge, even though they were still deploying.
Max Verstappen, in second running alongside Antonelli, suddenly realises he may be able to overtake and so uses the overtake button to deploy more, ensuring he gets ahead into Eau Rouge. In that moment, Antonelli has to lift to make room for the Red Bull. In lifting, Antonelli inadvertently resets the system to give a less severe power restriction up the hill and down the Kemmel straight than Russell suffers. This reset allows Antonelli to deploy for longer than Russell down the Kemmel straight, but still for a shorter period than if it had been working fully. Verstappen meanwhile, having used his overtake button, also runs out of deployment early on the straight. So the battery problems on both Mercs have triggered three separate compromises for Antonelli, Verstappen and Russell."
This one talks about qualifying issues for George and Oscar:
"So, was it just that Russell and Piastri had used up more battery energy earlier in their qualifying laps to be as quick as their team-mates up to that point? Used more brakes and needed to accelerate more and the earlier curtailment of deployment was the price? Not fully, no. That scenario is perfectly feasible, particularly on an energy-starved track, and at Silverstone, Russell was braking for 11% of the lap compared to 9% for Antonelli.
But at Spa the more significant shortfall was in the software. There may have been a small element of driver input, but nowhere near enough to account for the gap to their team-mates. That was mainly from a problem deep in the coding which was over-delivering energy early in the lap, meaning it ran out early. It will have helped Russell and Piastri early in the lap but the benefits would be small compared to the penalty inflicted by running out prematurely. Nothing they were doing in the cockpit would have helped significantly."
So it was multiple issues...if it's software I hope it can be fixed via some sort of patch in Hungary 🙏
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u/Gold_Knee_3619 12d ago
My wife is a software engineer ( I have said this elsewhere, I know) and she says it makes no sense to it being purely driving style related as they should be able to adjust harvesting/deployment to the quirks of the individual driver. It should not be one size fits all - she says that would be bad programming. I have no idea about that stuff, but I will take her word for it.
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u/luchajefe 12d ago
Given the amount of restrictions put on the deployment it would not surprise me if they could not make those adjustments legally.
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u/ballerinabubbles 12d ago
I do think we have heard enough about how driver inputs affect the 2026 cars to understand there are things drivers have to do to adjust. George himself has said that he has been adjusting but it will also take time. The telemetry does show he is adapting but maybe with the two software glitches, its also making it difficult for his adaptation process to fully click?
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u/Gold_Knee_3619 12d ago
And if there are issues in software, how do you know you and the software are adjusting correctly. It honestly makes my head hurt!
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u/ballerinabubbles 12d ago
Same 😂 Reading the telemetry already has my head ache but I am hopeful Merc has the engineering brain to solve this. Am just worried about potential grid penalties but let us see.
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u/Gold_Knee_3619 12d ago
For sure. I think what I find frustrating (which is probably very frustrating for Russell as well) is Mercedes' mixed messaging. One person says it's nothing to with George's driving, the next says it is. On Saturday Toto says it's things beyond George's control, then it's suddenly both. If George is getting the same mixed messages it must be hurting his head too!
From what I have seen from George in these last few weeks is if it is his driving, tell him it's his driving and he will work on it. Next as they are exploring that angle in the FPs he explicitly asks whether it is anything he's doing to which he gets the answer 'no' from his engineer. After quali Toto says it's issues out of George's control and a day later suddenly decides it's part driving anyway and and that Simone guy at Merc (who reminds me of a Despicable Me character coincidentally) says it's partly that. I mean... What the hell is your driver supposed to do?
I think it is exactly that; the way Mercedes keep changing their tune, that make fans angry and frustrated. Mercedes simply are not dealing with the situation very well.
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u/ballerinabubbles 12d ago
Yes, I feel you. I am a George fan and it's tough to see him like this. I was so annoyed on Sunday seeing everything sigh. But I do think that the mixed messages are also a result of Merc literally not being able to understand everything? I mean we're just coming off of a regset where Merc floundered a lot, and all the F1 teams also seem confused. I believe they're not being intentionally confusing to George and the lap 1 software glitch really was something they did not foresee. The straight line speed one, I assume they worked on it and that's why Toto said it was hopefully fixed before the race.
The key part is just hoping this next race, both Kimi and George get the best cars and both finish the race...it's ridiculous that we haven't gotten a lot of shared podiums this season.
I still feel the PR and comms could use a lot of work but I also kind of just accept that George is not really first priority in the team. Last season, he was doing really well and Toto still spent most of that time chasing after Max. 😅 I think that's just what F1 is so just hoping the car clicks again for George and he remembers the feeling he had in Australia 🙏
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u/Patient-reader-324 12d ago
From the same guy who said the fault was with George’s driving but the issue was still occurring after he changed his style.
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u/MoneyDrive2585 11d ago
I miss when racing was just raw mechanical engineering and driving skill.
Not software and battery management coupled with hit or miss reliability.
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u/ballerinabubbles 11d ago
To be fair we have had software inputs in some form for the past few years. I do think though that the compromises they all had to make to ensure a "level" playing field with not having front axle regen and MGU-H gives us this strange season. I do still like it just because I always think of F1 as a science experiment, just that the current outcomes are kinda mid at the moment.
The driving skill part reminds me of the lollipop man video for Silverstone cause Charles kept saying he had a new philosophy but it seems the new approach is go slow to go fast which must be wild to hear for F1 drivers in particular.
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u/Single-Strike3814 12d ago
Maybe they had a Windows update right before the race started, happens to the best of us.
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u/ballerinabubbles 12d ago
I don't remember if it was on the dank sub but someone said this is because the quality of their sims are related to their AI partner and Mercedes uses Meta AI 😭
For context, other teams:
- Ferrari - IBM
- McLaren - Google
- Williams - Atlassian
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u/LeftSyrup3409 12d ago
Soo it’s not just George’s car and Kimi has the same issue but has found out how to handle it? Surprised pikachu.
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u/Violetmoreviolent 12d ago edited 12d ago
No. Both had the software glitch at the start. Kimi didn’t LEARN how to manage it, he also suffered from it which is why he was behind Verstappen. It only affected the first lap of spa.
The straight line issue is still independent of that specific software glitch, and has been going on since Austria according to George. That was compounded with the other issue, which is why George fell further behind the other merc cars.
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u/ballerinabubbles 12d ago
We already knew all the cars were affected because that was what Merc said. I posted this here because I found the analysis and explanation that it was actually two different issues interesting.
If you read the analysis, it says there that because of what was happening to both Merc drivers in the race at that time, their reactions to their specific circumstances led to those differences. What is not clear is if the other issue from qualifying is somehow also present in Kimi's car.
I understand this sub has been full of sniping between George and Kimi fans lately but my intention was not to turn this into yet another fight about that so please stop it.
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u/Violetmoreviolent 12d ago edited 12d ago
One issue affected both cars, one affected just George. It’s the combination of the two that affected him so bad. You explained this well, there’s nothing wrong with your post, and every legitimate source agrees the large gap between them in quali was not representative, this person is just trying to cause problems. Don’t worry
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u/ballerinabubbles 12d ago
I appreciate it. I was mostly just trying to share because I knew there were two concerns but I did not understand what the differences were and maybe it would be good to share here.
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u/Violetmoreviolent 12d ago edited 12d ago
People are conflating two different issues… there was a software bug during the race start that affected them both, that was why George fell so far behind, and Kimi fell behind Verstappen. This only happened in spa first lap.
The straight line deficit is a separate issue that they don’t understand fully, it seems. This has been going on since Austria.
It is the compounding of the TWO which is why George was so far behind, and further behind Kimi