Why ‘no slower’ Mercedes is giving up on its F1 automobile idea
After a troubled pre-season testing run, the German automobile producer brushed itself off, dug deep, obtained to the underside of the issues it confronted with the W13, and late within the season gained the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Quick ahead to now and an virtually an identical six tenths hole – from a 0.680 seconds deficit to pole place in 2022 to a 0.632 seconds hole this 12 months – has triggered a very totally different response.
Moderately than it pointing to baseline for Mercedes to maneuver ahead from within the annual F1 growth warfare, it has as a substitute thrown up the white flag.
Inside minutes of the tip of qualifying, and even earlier than George Russell and Lewis Hamilton had sat down with the engineers, crew boss Toto Wolff declared that title hopes had been all however over and {that a} new automobile idea was wanted.
“I do not assume this package deal goes to be aggressive ultimately,” he mentioned.
“We gave it our greatest shot all around the winter, and now we simply must all regroup and sit down with the engineers, who’re completely not dogmatic about something.
“There aren’t any holy cows and we have to resolve what’s the growth course that we wish to pursue to be able to be aggressive to win races.”
F1 groups are usually keen to attend just a few races earlier than correctly judging how their automobiles stack up towards the opposition – particularly as totally different circuits can juggle up the aggressive order quite a bit as strengths and weaknesses are uncovered.
So Wolff declaring it nearly recreation over with the W14 after only a single qualifying session could seem fairly unusual. Nevertheless, there are some strong causes behind his stance.
Chief amongst these is that Mercedes is aware of it’s a utterly totally different scenario to final 12 months when there was a mismatch between the potential of the W13 and what it was seeing on monitor.
It knew that someplace deep inside the quirks of its 2022 automobile was an terrible lot of downforce that it simply wanted to have the ability to extract someway with out it triggering porpoising.
This time across the crew is a distinct place. The W14 is performing precisely because the crew anticipated, and it isn’t a case of there being quite a lot of lap time that it is aware of will be unlocked additional down the highway.
The crew has admitted that a reasonably large replace is being labored on, probably prepared for across the time of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in mid-Might, however that will solely deliver a few tenths.
That isn’t the game-changing efficiency Mercedes wants to have the ability to tackle the would possibly of Purple Bull, Ferrari and now Aston Martin, who themselves are additionally more likely to be bringing additional upgrades to their automobiles over the subsequent weeks.
As Wolff admitted on Saturday evening, Mercedes has not delivered a automobile that’s performing worse than anticipated. It’s simply not adequate in comparison with the opposite automobiles.
“We hit our targets,” he mentioned. “And that is why we gave it our greatest shot.
“The second comes when the stopwatch comes out, and that confirmed us that it is merely not adequate. We have not obtained sufficient downforce. And we have to wait to search out options to repair that.”
Aston Martin knowledge level
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR23
Photograph by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Pictures
Mercedes’ struggles have been additional uncovered by the truth that buyer crew Aston Martin has leapfrogged it within the pecking order.
However whereas the progress that Aston Martin has made in delivering arguably the third-fastest automobile is a blow, its rival’s tempo will a minimum of present a wealth of solutions for Brackley about the place its beneficial properties want to come back.
With Aston Martin having the identical energy unit, gearbox and rear suspension as Mercedes, there are some clear solutions about the place the W14 package deal is missing.
As Wolff mentioned: “They gained two seconds in half a 12 months, and their automobile is half ours from the engine, gearbox and the rear suspension. They use the identical wind tunnel, so there are quite a lot of parallels. We simply must acknowledge that they’ve carried out an excellent job.
“If it was mechanical or suspension [weakness] then Aston Martin ought to have it too.
“The purpose is we’re shedding it within the excessive velocity. It is Turns 5/6/7. That is just about the one place the place we’re shedding giant chunks of time. We’re okay within the different corners, we’re okay on the straight.”
The massive resolution
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14
Photograph by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Pictures
Regardless of the end result of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Wolff is insistent that the crew wants to modify paths with its automobile.
He talked in Bahrain of the necessity to go down ‘untreaded’ paths within the quest for the sort of efficiency step that it must get itself again to the entrance.
That route appears to be like virtually sure to imply ripping up the idea of the present Mercedes – which matches past simply its zero-pod idea and extends to its ground and diffuser design.
And, with many of the grid having modified tack to pursue the Purple Bull downwash resolution that appears dominant once more, there appears little doubt that Mercedes too should swallow its satisfaction and have a look at it.
What is going to ship the most important dilemma for Mercedes is whether or not it utterly abandons all efforts on the present automobile to begin on its new idea, or if it tries to work on each ideas in parallel.
Such a call is very difficult in the price cap period, because the crew is unlikely to have the ability to afford the sort of response that would unleash a very overhauled B-spec this season. It means it should stick to the W14 for some time.
Any new automobile idea is almost definitely going to be one thing arriving for 2024, so the query is how quickly does Mercedes swap off work on the present automobile?
One state of affairs, which sources say the crew is open-minded to, may very well be in abandoning the work coming for the Imola improve and as a substitute embark on the brand new idea work instantly. It will imply some brief time period ache, however long run acquire.
Wolff suggests it’s could also be too early to decide to such a path but, however he’s conscious that point is ticking.
“Undoubtedly on a regular basis counts, and you’re shedding nowadays,” he mentioned. “It should be tough to catch up.
“Due to this fact we have to take the appropriate exact choices now to be able to set the sails in the appropriate course.”
