Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott recently shared how his team successfully made significant changes to their sidepods after finding a loophole in the latest regulations. The Silver Arrows struggled quite a lot in the 2022 F1 season, but they came up with some drastic changes to their car that no one expected.
Speaking to Auto Motor und Sport, Elliot revealed how Mercedes were surprised that no other team could find the loophole and try the zero-sidepod change on their cars. He also explained how the team tried to see variations in performance on each track to test the new sidepod, saying:
“We were surprised that no one else found this loophole. Once you’ve gone this route, it’s very hard to copy anything else. We only have a partial view of things. We only see what our car is doing. It is difficult to judge how the other concepts will react. We tried to understand the issues and get in a position to predict the variation in performance from track to track. It has nothing to do with the shape of the sidepods, but more to do with how we designed the car and what goals we set.”
[formu1a.uno]
| The Mercedes W14 will reportedly keep the ‘zero sidepods’ concept for 2023, maintaining a similar concept from last season.[formu1a.uno]
When asked about the free space underneath the car, the Mercedes technical director shared that his team was more concerned about the stiffness of the floor due to the zero-sidepod design of the car. He said:
“It was more of a concern that we could get the floor to be stiff enough and not flex too much at high speeds. But we have now solved that.”
The Brackley-based team constantly struggled with porpoising and tried to fix it by bringing in new components. Due to all these issues, the team was unable to fight for the championship
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff wants Mick Schumacher to get a seat in F1
Toto Wolff, the team principal at Mercedes, believes that Mick Schumacher is good enough to get a permanent seat on the F1 grid. After two tumultuous years with Haas, Schumacher left the team and was soon hired by the Silver Arrows as their third driver. Despite his poor performance in the American team, Wolff reckoned that the young German driver simply wanted a good environment to perform. Hey said:
“I think if you give him a safe environment to develop, he can become a good racer in a permanent seat. Just as we let Nyck de Vries go to make a career for himself, the same could happen with Mick. Whether it’s with our team or somewhere else. We don’t know yet. The most important factor is his personality. He is a well-mannered, intelligent and talented young man. If you look at his junior career, he was very good.”
Joining Mercedes even as a reserve driver is a huge step for Mick Schumacher as he is now part of one of the biggest teams on the grid.
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