According to Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ s trackside technical director, the 2021 challenger may not have an advantage over the Red Bull car. Despite Lewis Hamilton’s win at the season opener in Bahrain, Shovlin believes the lead can be short-lived if it doesn’t improve.
After the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Mercedes engineer said:
“It’s great to get out of here and run the championship, but we have no illusions that this will be anything but an incredibly difficult championship.”
Shovlin also spoke about their direct rival’s package, Red Bull:
“We made good progress last week, but Red Bull has the better package at the moment. If we don’t improve, our lead may be short-lived.”
In a sport in which the law of diminishing returns has top priority, the teams have to deprive the car of the greatest possible performance. This becomes more important when teams are involved in a championship battle. Mercedes and Red Bull are expected to fight for the title this season. Hence, it is imperative that the teams maximize their return on performance.
When Shovlin spoke about the race, he claimed:
“We don’t have any real strengths about them – I would say – and we’ve had many years of relying on straight-line speed or fast cornering or interconnected corners. But you check it out here [in Bahrain] and we didn’t take our time anywhere “
Comparing Red Bull to Mercedes during qualifying, Shovlin stated:
“There were a couple of corners that they took from us in qualifying – the high speed, also corners 9 and 10 – they were very strong there. And that’s really the main thing. In qualifying they are only on the right track in our best corners and only faster in others. So we need a faster car, it’s that simple. ”
Does Red Bull have a better package than Mercedes?
With budget constraints and engine development constraints, Red Bull Racing might have beaten the Silver Arrows by making a more competitive package in terms of both chassis and engine. According to Shovlin, Mercedes could be asked to further develop its package due to the restrictions on the teams.
The current Mercedes car W12 is based on a low-rake philosophy, while Red Bull Racing’s RB16B is a high-rake chassis. The level of computation affects the layout and aerodynamic philosophy and is directly related to the choice of wheelbase, which is reflected in the total downforce generated by the floor of the vehicle.
Lewis Hamilton beached his Mercedes during pre-season testing. Photo: Clive Mason / Getty Images.
The 2022 regulations call for the length of the chassis to be shortened slightly at the rear, a concept that teams were made aware of last season. However, the shortened vehicle length at the rear damages vehicles with a low rack structure. A low rake design requires a longer wheelbase compared to a high rake car that can use a shorter wheelbase, making cornering easier and generating downforce effortless. The current Mercedes car has struggled with balance and rear stability since the test last season.
If only limited development brands need to be issued, changing the current design of the Mercedes would mean starting from scratch, especially for the rake design. Shovlin stated:
“There is nothing we can do about that now. 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 that would write off the season. We’d lose so much in the process – it’s just not practical to restore it. “
The restrictions limit Mercedes’ ability to make drastic changes to their package. Shovlin explained how the restrictions hurt Mercedes this year:
“Normally you would look into the wind tunnel to try and create just a little bit of downforce over the course of the year. They would also look at the genset to try and apply some electricity, but both are restricted by regulations this year so we have very little time with the wind tunnel. Dyno is also severely constrained – we can’t improve engine performance this year – so we need to look at more subtle areas related to drivability. “
“You have done an amazing job all weekend so it took something very special to get the win tonight.”
More from @LewisHamilton while talking about tonight’s intense #BahrainGP 
– Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@ MercedesAMGF1) March 28, 2021
About the close duel between Mercedes and Red Bull, Shovlin said:
“I think this season – this championship – will actually result in more than normal fine margins.”
Lewis Hamilton repeated the engineer’s statements:
“We need everything and more to perform [Bahrain Grand Prix] like this.”
With every inch that fits snugly between Mercedes and Red Bull’s cars, this season could be the one Formula 1 fans have been waiting for. After much criticism of Mercedes’ dominance in recent seasons and rejecting appropriate title fights, 2021 could be a boon, with more bike-to-bike action between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
Published 07 Apr 2021, 8:11 PM IST
Sign in / Sign in to reply
Did you miss our previous article...
https://formulaone.news/red-bull/extreme-e-a-new-kind-of-motorsport
