Mercedes narrowly beat Red Bull and won the inaugural race of the 2021 Formula 1 season when Lewis Hamilton crossed the finish line just 0.745 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen. If the Dutchman hadn’t exceeded the track limit while overtaking the Briton by a handful of laps, Red Bull could have opened their season with a win.
However, the weekend’s performance showed that Red Bull had a faster car than Mercedes. This is partly due to the new 2021 soil regulations that were put in place to reduce vehicle downforce. At the Bahrain Grand Prix it became clear that teams like Red Bull and AlphaTauri, which have a high rake angle, benefited most from the new regulations.
Mercedes and Red Bull are at the two extremes of the low rake / high rake philosophy. So the reigning champion’s solution has deteriorated in 2021. # F1https: //t.co/WaNqjsmdnW
– Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) March 27, 2021
Mercedes believes a move now could be the end of the 2021 season
The teams that seem to have lost are those with a low rake setup like Mercedes and Aston Martin. The latter’s team boss, Otmar Szafnauer, said the team lost a second per lap due to the low-rake design in Bahrain.
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes roadside technical director, said a lot of time and effort would be put into developing a completely new design to regain the lost downforce, and by then the season would be over anyway.
“But whether it’s high-rake or low-rake or not, there’s nothing we can do about it now,” Shovlin said. “What we certainly can’t do is suddenly say that we’re going to raise the rear of our car 30mm and work with it because it would write off the season.”
To switch to a high-rake setup, the team would have to design a brand new rear suspension that is not allowed under the new regulations.
However, Mercedes remains optimistic. Shovlin believes they could still balance the problem with changes that would conform to the new rules.
“We have a car that could win a championship if we make smart decisions with it,” said Shovlin. “Work well with it and work well all year round.”
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