Mercedes F1 track engineering director Andrew Shovlin believes the W13 is “particularly annoying” as it gives the team a glimpse of what it is capable of achieving in terms of performance, but it still lacks consistency.
The German team recorded their best result of the season in Hungary just before the break: George Russell took pole position, his first in his career and the first for a silver arrow in 2022, before he and his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, both finish on the podium the next day, like in France.
This pole from the Briton was a real surprise because so far, the W13 had never been able to fight for the front row on a regular basis this season.
“This car has been particularly annoying because it gives us glimpses of what its true level of performance might be, so much so that it’s hard for us to bring ourselves to give it up,” explained Shovlin.
« From an engineering point of view it’s a tricky car. And some of our problems are definitely that we don’t have enough downforce, we have to find more and that’s the same. for power. But overall, it’s a sign that we’re going in the right direction. The double podium, the pole position, these are results that we couldn’t dream of earlier in the year. is encouraging, we seem to be making progress. »
Mercedes F1 believes in its “no pontoon” concept
If the W13 lacks downforce, it is largely because Mercedes was forced to raise its ride height to reduce the extreme rebound that has long affected it and its drivers. And now that the problem seems to be solved, the German team is doing everything possible to make its “non-pontoon” concept work as well as possible, with some engineers convinced of its potential thanks to the results obtained in the wind tunnel.
« I think it’s been helpful to see that this very narrow chassis is able to perform in races. It’s definitely something we use as a foundation for our development. We’ll be more efficient if we work with what we have. , rather than trying to copy someone else’s design. »
« It’s not like we’re saying ‘well, we’re going to follow this road forever’, we’re very open about what we want for the car. What we’ve already validated is the development path, which is currently allowing us to obtain better results and which seems capable of leading us to victories this year. There is no doubt that the path we are following is the right one to improve our performance. »
« But the pontoons are only part of the overall problems that we had to solve. There are still three races we were bouncing everywhere, in Montreal, in Baku or in Monaco. »
« Now when our riders talk about rebound it’s only because they felt it at some point in a corner. It became noticeable by its absence. And we were able to improve our current package, which is a good sign.
Shovlin added that Mercedes saw no point in taking inspiration from a rival car, like Aston Martin F1 did with Red Bull’s concept.
« If you make your car look like someone else’s, you will lose performance in the short term. Maybe there will be long term gains, but as far as our car is concerned from this year, I think we have a good idea of what we want to do with it and what extra level of performance we can get out of it. We are excited thinking about what we will bring in the next races. »
Did you miss our previous article...
https://formulaone.news/mercedes/drugovich-aiming-for-f1-reserve-role-in-2023-race-seats-very-limited
