Mercedes knew limits of W14 F1 automotive idea earlier than Bahrain
The German producer has had a tough begin to the brand new season, with its 2023 F1 challenger proving to be no match for the dominant Pink Bull group.
Straight after qualifying for the season-opener in Bahrain, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff mentioned that the squad had already thrown the towel in on its design idea and would begin work on a very new path.
Whereas his feedback after only a single aggressive session prompted some to recommend the group was performing in haste, it has since emerged that Mercedes knew many weeks earlier than that it wanted to do one thing completely different.
Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed that Mercedes had reached a conclusion concerning the limits of the W14 within the wind tunnel when it realised enhancements weren’t coming as simply because it hoped.
“You possibly can have a look at your improvement charges within the wind tunnel, and earlier than we even received to Bahrain, there have been conversations about taking a look at larger [concept] departures,” defined Shovlin.
“That is not taking a look at it in isolation for this yr’s automotive improvement, it’s one thing we have achieved over the course of the final 10 years.
“In the event you’re not discovering the features you want, you make a much bigger change. You discover one other space and sometimes you need to unlock that.
“That had already occurred earlier than Bahrain. However maybe the urgency to attempt to deliver these bits to the monitor has gone up following the early races.”
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14
Photograph by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Photos
One of many largest modifications that Mercedes plans to unlock within the early section of this season is a revision to its zeropod idea.
Nonetheless, Shovlin mentioned the group must overhaul different areas of the automotive as nicely if it desires to seek out the efficiency wanted to beat Pink Bull.
Requested to make clear what Wolff had meant by a change of idea, Shovlin mentioned: “Maybe we have adopted the phrase idea to imply sidepod.
“This automotive is an evolution of the automotive that we had final yr, and lots of that’s tied round the place we have got the facet influence construction. So now we’re taking a look at larger departures as a result of it is evident that this hasn’t given us the efficiency that we might like.
“Saying that, there’s different areas of the automotive that we all know we have to enhance as nicely.
“It will be very misguided to suppose if we go and put a unique trying sidepod on it, all of that hole goes to fade.
“The fact is that the overwhelming majority of that hole goes to have to come back from different efficiency areas. We have got lots of initiatives in the meanwhile attempting to deliver efficiency over the subsequent 5 races.”
In addition to the work on the general idea, Mercedes faces a problem in attempting to get Lewis Hamilton extra snug with the automotive as he’s fighting the shortage of rear finish stability.
Shovlin mentioned that had been many features of the W14 that wanted to be made higher for each Hamilton and George Russell.
“There’s issues the place the automotive hasn’t gotten entry stability, and meaning they have not actually received the boldness with it,” he mentioned. “It may be a bit difficult to deliver the tyres in, and we’re sliding round an excessive amount of within the excessive pace.
“We’re taking suggestions from each drivers all through each session, and that is getting fed into the event course of. And, in the end, I feel if we enhance the automotive for Lewis, we are going to enhance it for George as nicely.”
