Technical contributors：Mark Hughes and Giorgio Piola

技术顾问：马克·休斯和乔治·皮奥拉

TECH TUESDAY: Why did Mercedes fall down the order in Abu Dhabi after taking a 1-2 in Sao Paulo?

「技术周二」为什么梅赛德斯在圣保罗以1-2落后于阿布扎比？

Mark Hughes looks at Mercedes’ performance drop-off from Sao Paulo – where George Russell took their first and only win of the season – to Abu Dhabi, where Russell came home fifth and Hamilton did not finish. Giorgio Piola provides technical illustrations.

Mercedes’ recent return to form was brought up short in the final race of the season at Abu Dhabi. Just seven days after their one-two result in Brazil, they were definitely only the third-fastest team around the Yas Marina circuit.

Following their significant floor and wing upgrade in Austin, together with a revised wing and some significant weight saving, there was a step change in the W13’s competitiveness. But that was at tracks – Austin, Mexico City and Sao Paulo – which do not unduly punish a higher level of drag.

In Abu Dhabi, the long flat-out sections of Sector 1 and the chicane-punctuated flat-out sections between Turns 5 and 9 mean that low drag is an essential part of the equation of being competitive there. It can be inferred from its performance patterns throughout the season that the W13 is a considerably draggier car than the Red Bull. At Abu Dhabi that hurt much more than at the preceding three track layouts.

马克·休斯（Mark Hughes）观察了梅赛德斯从圣保罗（George Russell在那里取得了本赛季的第一场也是唯一一场胜利）到阿布扎比（Abu Dhabi）的表现下滑，在那里拉塞尔以第五名的成绩回家，汉密尔顿没有完成比赛。Giorgio Piola提供技术插图。

梅赛德斯最近在阿布扎比的最后一场比赛中恢复了状态。在巴西取得1-2的成绩仅仅七天后，他们绝对是亚斯码头赛道上跑得第三快的球队。

在奥斯汀对地板和机翼进行了重大升级后，再加上改进后的机翼和一些显著的重量减轻，W13的竞争力发生了重大变化。但这是在轨道上——奥斯汀、墨西哥城和圣保罗——这些轨道不会过度惩罚更高水平的阻力。

在阿布扎比，1号区的长平段和5号弯和9号弯之间的弯道间断平段意味着低阻力是该地区竞争力的重要组成部分。从其整个赛季的表现模式可以推断，W13是一辆比红牛更具牵引力的赛车。在阿布扎比，这比之前的三种赛道布局造成的伤害要大得多。

This had an impact upon the team’s strategic choices, as trackside engineering chief Andrew Shovlin explained. “Looking at the FP3 timesheets we concluded we’d probably have two Red Bulls ahead of us whatever we did. We weren’t expecting to be so far behind the Ferraris – that was a bit disappointing. But the fact we knew we’d have the Red Bulls ahead meant we didn’t make any decisions based around qualifying. Everything was for the race.”

In the practice sessions Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had both tried a reduced flap angle rear wing, which reduced the straight-line speed deficit to the Red Bull and the low-winged Ferrari, but which proved slower over the lap, because of the oversteer through the tighter turns of the final sector.

Given that they expected to qualify behind Red Bull anyway and that the race was looking to be finely-poised between a one-stop and a two, Mercedes decided to run the bigger wing to help protect the tyres, even if that did make their car less raceable wheel-to-wheel because of its vulnerability at the end of the straights.

正如轨旁工程主管安德鲁·肖夫林所解释的，这对团队的战略选择产生了影响。“看了FP3时间表，我们得出结论，无论我们做什么，我们很可能会有两支红牛队领先。我们没想到会远远落后于法拉利车队，这有点令人失望。但事实上，我们知道我们会有红牛队领先，这意味着我们没有根据排位赛做出任何决定。一切都是为了比赛。”

在练习中，刘易斯·汉密尔顿（Lewis Hamilton）和乔治·拉塞尔（George Russell）都尝试了减小襟翼角度的后翼，这减少了红牛和低翼法拉利的直线速度不足，但在圈内证明速度较慢，因为在最后一段转弯较紧时转向过度。

考虑到他们无论如何都希望在红牛之后晋级，而且比赛将在一站式和两站式之间保持良好的平衡，梅赛德斯决定使用更大的翼子板来保护轮胎，即使这确实会使他们的赛车在直道终点时因其脆弱性而变得不易比赛。

Another conundrum presented by the Yas Marina Circuit layout also probably hurt Mercedes more than the others. There is a degree of tyre management necessary even over a qualifying lap here. If full advantage is taken of the grip available through the long fast sweeps of Sector 1, the rear tyres will tend to be too hot for the twists of Sector 3.

Complicating things further, it is difficult to have the front tyres up to temperature for the start of the lap without overheating the rears. This presents a particular problem for Mercedes’ W13, which needs an especially aggressive out-lap to bring the front tyres up to temperature. This is a downside of the positive trait the car has not overworking the front tyres in the race.

Much of the heat management of the front tyres comes from the brake ducting arrangements inside the wheel. That of the Mercedes is very sophisticated, as we recently discussed here. We can see the difference between the maximum brake cooling arrangement used in the thin atmosphere of Mexico and that used in Abu Dhabi.

亚斯码头赛道的赛道布局所带来的另一个难题可能也比其他赛道对梅赛德斯的伤害更大。即使在排位赛中，也需要一定程度的轮胎管理。如果充分利用1区的长距离快速扫过所提供的抓地力，则后轮胎将倾向于过热，无法进行3区的扭转。

更为复杂的是，在不使后轮过热的情况下，很难让前轮胎达到一圈开始时的温度。这给梅赛德斯的W13带来了一个特别的问题，它需要一个特别积极的外圈，以使前轮胎达到温度。这是赛车在比赛中没有过度使用前轮胎的积极特征的一个缺点。

前轮胎的大部分热量管理来自车轮内部的制动管道布置。正如我们最近在这里讨论的那样，梅赛德斯的设计非常复杂。我们可以看到在墨西哥稀薄大气中使用的最大制动冷却装置与在阿布扎比使用的最大制动器冷却装置之间的差异。

“We don’t seem to change that [ducting] as much as some,” says Shovlin. “Generally we’re trying to keep the rubber on the cooler side as that allows it to last a bit longer and keeps the pressures from rising too high. Others are trying to put more temperature in than we are.”

The more brake cooling, the more heat is transferred into the rims and tyres. In Mexico, full priority had to be given to the brake cooling, which is extremely marginal there. Hence keeping the front tyres cool had to assume less importance there, but around Abu Dhabi the tyre cooling once more took priority, as an important part of the car’s good tyre usage in the race.

As with the wing choice, it emphasised how much Mercedes’ decisions were based upon race day performance rather than qualifying.

肖夫林说：“我们似乎没有像某些人那样改变这种管道。”“一般来说，我们试图将橡胶保持在较冷的一侧，因为这样可以让橡胶保持更长的时间，并防止压力过高。其他人则试图比我们更高的温度。”

制动器冷却越多，传递到轮辋和轮胎的热量就越多。在墨西哥，必须充分优先考虑制动器冷却，这在那里是极其边缘的。因此，保持前轮胎的冷却在那里不太重要，但在阿布扎比，轮胎冷却再次成为首要任务，这是赛车在比赛中良好使用轮胎的重要组成部分。

与机翼选择一样，它强调了梅赛德斯的决定在多大程度上是基于比赛日的表现而非排位赛。