Motorsport.com sees wind-tunnel correlation flaw in Mercedes’ Singapore test

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Motorsport.com argues that Mercedes’ Friday split-spec result in Singapore effectively confirms a fundamental wind-tunnel correlation flaw. Shovlin said after that session that the team was still working to understand the upgrade’s missing performance gain.

From the GPBeat newsroomPublished · 12 Oct 2026, 01:42 · 1 min

George Russell’s front-row result with Mercedes’ older aerodynamic package in Friday’s Singapore sprint qualifying has prompted Motorsport.com to argue that the team’s wind-tunnel correlation is “fundamentally flawed”. Correlation describes how closely wind-tunnel predictions match performance on track — whether an upgrade delivers the gain expected from it.

Mercedes had split its cars between two configurations after difficulties with the upgrade in Malaysia. Kimi Antonelli kept the package introduced there and qualified seventh for the sprint, while Russell reverted to the previous specification. The different configurations were intended to let the team compare the packages.

After Friday’s session, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said the team was still trying to understand why the upgrade was not delivering the performance gain it expected.

Shovlin said Singapore and the sprint format made the comparison difficult because dialling in the set-up often took time. He said neither car had good balance, and Antonelli in particular lacked confidence under braking and on corner entry — confidence he considered essential to attacking a qualifying lap at Marina Bay.

On Friday, Shovlin hoped Mercedes could use its data to improve Antonelli’s set-up for Saturday’s main qualifying.

Sources 02