Mercedes explains method to altering F1 automobile idea

After the Bahrain Grand Prix group boss Toto Wolff made it clear that it was time to take a look at a change of course, and that there could be “no holy cows” when it comes to sticking to established concepts.

The definition of precisely what the idea of an F1 automobile entails has been a speaking level in latest weeks, with Wolff making it clear that it extends past the trademark ‘measurement zero’ sidepods that the group transferred from final 12 months’s W13 to its present automobile.

Talking in a Mercedes Q&A video, Elliott acknowledged that the definition of idea is a unfastened one.

“The straightforward reply is it means various things to completely different individuals,” he mentioned.

“I feel after Bahrain we needed to settle for we weren’t the place we needed to be, that we had to take a look at all of the issues that make up our automobile and work out what might we be doing in another way, how might we get extra efficiency, as a result of there’s a vital hole for us to catch as much as the entrance.

“So the engineers are busy taking a look at aerodynamics, they’re wanting on the form of the automobile, issues just like the sidepod geometry, the ground geometry, have we missed a trick?

“However we’re additionally wanting within the simulation world of are we focusing on the proper issues, are we pushing the aerodynamics in the proper course?

“We’re wanting on the mechanical set-up of the automobile, are there issues there that we’re lacking? What else can we deliver to the automobile that’s going so as to add efficiency? And we’re attempting to try this as quick as we probably can, as a result of we wish to get again to the entrance.

“We wish to be competing on the entrance, and the one method we’re going to do that’s by accepting we’re not within the place we wish to be, and preventing and dealing actually onerous to get again there.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14

Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Pictures

Elliott confused that the W14’s poor efficiency in Bahrain was a “actuality examine” for the Brackley-based squad, however he did level out it has energised the group into on the lookout for options.

“Bahrain was an actual actuality examine and to seek out ourselves within the place we discover ourselves in, not being aggressive, was an actual disappointment,” he mentioned. “A disappointment for the entire group.

“However it’s important to get your self by that, and it’s important to flip that into what we’re going to do about it? How are we going to deliver the type of the vitality and what we’re able to doing?

“How are we going to maneuver ourselves ahead? How are we going to get ourselves again within the combat?

“And truly, strolling across the manufacturing unit there may be enormous quantity of vitality, there’s a enormous quantity of labor occurring, we’re beginning to see among the improvement come by already that’s going to get us again into this championship combat.

“All we will do is simply maintain pushing. I have been actually happy to see the angle within the group.”

Requested about potential type within the Australian GP, he mentioned: “Firstly, our primary purpose in the meanwhile is to proceed studying. We have solely had two races to date. It is actually troublesome to construct developments from that.

“By way of the precise traits of the circuit, Australia might be front-limited and possibly extra like Jeddah than like Bahrain. So, let’s hope that we will discover one other small step ahead, get a bit extra aggressive, discover the training that’s going to assist us transfer ahead in the long run.”