While Formula 1 is heading to Monza this weekend to compete in the Italian Grand Prix, Mercedes F1 could have a tricky weekend as its W13 is not comfortable on circuits requiring a lot of top speed.
It could be that the German team is less efficient than in Zandvoort last week, but Toto Wolff, in a tone of humor, has obviously found the ideal solution so that this is not the case.
“We are thinking of removing the rear wings in order to be less vulnerable in a straight line,” joked the Austrian leader.
« We have a car that produces way too much aerodynamic drag and we won’t need downforce at this circuit. That’s something we hope we can change quickly in view of next year, we’re learning the hard way. for the moment. »
« And I think on some of the remaining circuits this year, especially in qualifying, it’s something that will penalize us. It’s better in the race because as we saw at Spa, there was no big differences in a straight line. »
Mercedes F1 less efficient than at Zandvoort but better than at Spa?
Andrew Shovlin, director of track engineering, is a little less pessimistic than his boss.
« We can use smaller fins there, we’ll have a bit less downforce and we’re optimistic that some of the specific issues we had at Spa on the bumps shouldn’t affect us. »
“We can put the car in a better working window. However, the Red Bull looks very efficient, it’s quick on the straights and it’s quick on the corners and those issues seem more important to us when we go on low downforce tracks. »
« It’s hard to say exactly where we will be: probably not as strong as we were at Zandvoort but hopefully nowhere near as difficult as at Spa. »
Several circuits should be suitable for the W13 by the end of the season
And even though Monza is more difficult, Mercedes believe there will be other circuits where they can extract more potential from their car before the end of the season.
“There are always a number of factors at play,” Shovlin continues.
“One of them is that we just developed the car, trying to solve a few of these issues that we had at the start of the season and over time we got faster and faster. «
« However, you saw at Spa that we really struggled particularly on a single lap and we have identified some areas of development that make it difficult to get it working in its optimum state on those tracks. At Spa we had to raise the car a bit, we struggled with it over some bumps and the net effect was that it cost us performance. »
« At Zandvoort the car was easier to put in the right window. It drove well, didn’t bounce over the bumps. It gave the drivers confidence, they were able to push it and actually we probably had our weekend. most competitive end in terms of qualifying and the race of the whole year. »
« It was really encouraging, and we will have more good circuits coming up for us. »
