Mercedes endured a nightmare start to the ground-effect era with a car that suffered from wild porpoising, which forced the team to run its car higher than it wanted.
The bouncing also prevented the Brackley outfit from chasing pure performance until the issue could be resolved, as evidenced by 2022’s first five races across which Lewis Hamilton and George Russell failed to make any meaningful progress.
But this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, for which Mercedes unleashed a raft of upgrades on its W13, finally appeared to have delivered the breakthrough it had been looking for.
From Friday practice onwards, the porpoising appeared all but gone and Mercedes chief Wolff confirmed that the team has solved its Achilles’ heel problem.
“Yeah, we understand now,” Wolff told Sky Sports after Barcelona qualifying, in which Russell ended up fourth and Hamilton sixth.
“It’s an aerodynamic effect that’s created from the floor swinging and it was difficult to come to that conclusion in a scientific way. But the team around [technical director] Mike Elliot and [aero chief] Jarrod Murphy, they’ve done it. And that’s great.”
Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes AMG talks to George Russell, Mercedes-AMG in Mercedes garage
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
While Mercedes is stilling coming up six tenths short compared to its rivals, Wolff is confident his squad can now start closing that gap.
Removing porpoising will allow it to focus all its efforts on making the car quicker, rather than having to fight with one hand tied behind its back.
“The other teams have been able to continue to develop their car, while we have been a little bit in a pause moment to find out about the bouncing,” he explained.
“So, as soon as we can pick up the regular development, as soon as we understand the tires better now the bouncing is gone, I think we will be catching up.
“I believe that we have done a solid step in Barcelona. You’re trying to keep your expectations at a realistic point, and I think where we slotted in today is somehow the best we could have expected.”
