Mercedes AMG Petronas, Formula One team, knows that they are not where needed to be. And so, to mark an end to the constant disappointments, the team’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed the “bigger departures” they are looking forward to adopting.
Mercedes’s situation at present is something like a drowning man catching straws in order to get saved. Even a single change means hope for Mercedes. The team started the 2023 f1 season with the black livery Mercedes W14 car with the expectations of bridging the gap they made last year between Red Bull and Ferrari. But now, when the season opener race arrived, Mercedes remained miles away from the podium. They clearly went through the reality check. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell realized that all the claims about W14 being strong are, in fact, a lie. It certainly does not have porpoising issues, but it has other issues of the same level that prevent the team from optimizing at a level Red Bull and Aston Martin are doing.
The Concept That Mercedes Is Changing Is The Side Pod Design
Given this, Mercedes announces their hunt for the solutions they can bring to fix the W14. At present, so far, with the three days of test runs at Sakhir International Circuit and the four runs during the Bahrain Grand Prix, they realized that the W14 is lacking the downforce. So the area where the change is needed has been figured out. Mercedes chief Toto Wolff has announced that the concept they brought in 2023 is not working. After this, Andrew Shovlin explained that by “concept,” we mean the side pod design.
Andrew explained what Wolff suggested about bringing a revision in the next few races. He said, “the gap to the front, of course, we are going to look at bigger departures and more radical changes.” However, making the “radical changes” takes time; Rome isn’t built in a day. Nothing can be done overnight, said Shovlin. He suggested that a lot of development needed to be done in the geometry of that area.
Andrew Shovlin Explains What the Team Learnt From The Bahrain Grand Prix And How Hard They Are Working On It
Of course, Mercedes is not yet confirmed for the exact part which fixes, and Mercedes wins the championship. It’s a gradual process, “we are looking at where the W14 can be improved,” said the trackside director. The potential development might allow visible changes in the new Mercedes car. For exactly when? When will Mercedes bring those changes? Andrew Shovlin said, “over a few next weeks.” Meanwhile, Andrew Shovlin also explains the things Mercedes has learned from Bahrain Grand Prix, which are:
- The gap Mercedes had in the qualifying was quite big and unexpected.
- The tyre was degraded, which gave a bit more sliding.
- The tyres ran hotter.
- Things were not under control.
- THE LONG RUN DEGRADATION.
- The car was not under the control
- The raw pace of W14
Shovlin assured that in the Brackley factory, the engineers are working very hard at the moment. The main motive is to understand what they can do in the short-term future. And in the mid-term future, they will try to be in a better place. Despite the disappointments, the team is working together, and no sense of outrage has been found among the drivers toward their team.
After 2022, when Mercedes lost all its dignity, it did not expect 2023 to be the same. But it is happening exactly the same. And they gotta deal with it. The Silver Arrows must find something within April as the cancellation of Chinese Grand Prix has been canceled, and there, they got plenty of free time to work on their issues.