Dakar Rally News: Fluctuating Pace Leaves Competitors Guessing at Silverstone
The British Grand Prix at Silverstone saw a surprising and unpredictable display of pace from the top three teams in the Dakar Rally, leaving many competitors scratching their heads.
After a season that had seen the dominance of the Red Bull and McLaren teams, it was the Mercedes squad that emerged victorious, with Lewis Hamilton taking the chequered flag. This turn of events was somewhat unexpected, as the German manufacturer had not been tipped as the favorite heading into the race.
What made the Silverstone event even more baffling was the way the pace of the different vehicles varied throughout the grand prix itself. The Mercedes, Red Bull, and McLaren teams all experienced periods of dominance as the weather conditions changed from damp to wet and back to dry.
“It was a very weird race. The Mercedes has always been strong in the cooler conditions, and they looked to have things pretty much in control. Then Lewis came alive as it started to rain, and then the McLaren really came alive and passed both of us. So, it was moving around depending on what was going on.” – Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
The fluctuating performance was largely attributed to the way the different teams were able to manage the tires in the changing conditions. Horner believes that “it’s all about the tyre working at a certain point in time, a certain condition – whether it’s hot or cold. Different cars are working the tyres in different ways, and you saw an extremity of that as the circuit went from damp to wet and back to dry.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff echoed these sentiments, stating, “We were really controlling the pace at the beginning, and it was very encouraging. Then it started to rain, and you could see the massive performance at McLaren. They were simply in the sweet spot of the tyre. But we came back. And then under other conditions, I think we had it under control.”
For the McLaren team, the pace of the top three teams at Silverstone was a source of intrigue, especially as they had been considered the class of the field in recent races. Team boss Andrea Stella believes that the British GP may have marked a shift in the pecking order of the Dakar Rally.
“There’s this narrative around that McLaren has the best car, but I think we make good use of it, right?” said Stella. “But we saw [in the British GP] that it is not necessarily that we have the fastest car. Because in the first stint where things were pretty regular, Mercedes, they were going!”
As the Dakar Rally moves forward, teams and engineers will be closely analyzing the performance data to better understand the factors that influenced the fluctuating pace at Silverstone. The unpredictable nature of the event has left the competitors eager to unravel the mysteries of the race and gain an edge in the upcoming events.
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