As Mercedes has labored by bettering its capricious 2022 System 1 automotive it has remained resolute that one thing pinpointed by many as a possible main flaw is merely a “distraction”.
Factors of distinction between F1 automobiles can typically be onerous to establish on the floor, so when they’re noticed they grow to be the topic of nice curiosity and scrutiny. This rapidly creates pink herrings.
That could be the case with Mercedes’ revolutionary and aggressively minimised sidepod design. It turned heads in Bahrain testing, was briefly controversial, and whereas rivals rapidly stopped caring about them when the W13’s flaws turned obvious, the sidepods nonetheless got here to symbolize your entire automotive ‘idea’ to the surface world.
When Mercedes had a foul weekend or suffered any form of performance-related subject, it turned frequent to listen to a variant of: ‘Are you going to ditch your sidepods?’ – as if this was the important thing a part of the bundle, and Mercedes was blindly cussed to persevere with it.
In actuality, when Mercedes personnel have referred to a “idea”, they’re most likely considering extra about suspension geometry and ground form (beneath and on the edge).
“These are the issues which can be extra highly effective in figuring out the automotive efficiency,” says trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin.
“I believe it has been helpful to see that this slim bodywork automotive can carry out nicely in races, and that is actually the factor that, for us to take as a basis for improvement, shall be simpler if we work with what we’ve acquired somewhat than try to hop to another person’s design.
“The sidepods are most likely a little bit of a distraction from the general points we’ve needed to repair.”
It’s price noting that Pink Bull and Ferrari have gone for 2 very totally different sidepod interpretations to at least one one other, but their automobiles (the quickest two in 2022) are equally aggressive.
These have spawned a wide range of imitations throughout the grid however there’s hardly one definitive sidepod design that Mercedes is eschewing.
What’s truthful to say is that Mercedes now stands alone with a ‘shrunken’ sidepod design as each different crew has opted for an undercut/downwashing strategy, or the Ferrari-inspired high floor with the sunken center part.
The sidepods typically simply get shrugged off by Mercedes personnel as ‘simply bodywork’. They’re vital however, as Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott notes, they’re “most likely not the important thing differentiator – it’s a element within the ground design”.
That’s to not say the sidepods gained’t change, particularly in 2023. Mercedes has been open to this concept for some time and made no secret that it’s doable.
That has most likely fuelled hypothesis that Mercedes will certainly ditch the sidepods – but when it does it won’t be as a result of the sidepods are thought-about a silver bullet that may treatment all of the automotive’s ills.
“We don’t assume that simply altering our sidepod will change our competitiveness,” says Shovlin.
“We’re actually not of that thoughts, nor are we wedded to saying ‘that is how the Mercedes automotive should look’.
“So, from the very early a part of the yr we’re different groups’ bodyworks and definitely with a view to subsequent yr, wanting up and down the grid to see concepts.
“And it might be that we don’t simply take one other crew’s concept. We’re combos of various ideas.
“However it’s a gradual course of. I believe essentially our automotive isn’t going to vary look massively this season. However I’d be shocked if subsequent yr’s automotive seems the identical.”
Elliott confirmed final month on the British Grand Prix, the place Mercedes had a significant improve bundle, together with new entrance suspension fairings and a revised ground, that the crew had “evaluated some ideas” within the Ferrari/Pink Bull model and can proceed to have a look at them.
The slim sidepods have left Mercedes with a giant, cantilevered ground and managing the stiffness of that, Elliott concedes, has been a problem. However it’s not “the massive defining characteristic” of the automotive.
“I believe you’d be foolish to not have a stage of humility that you just assume you doubtlessly acquired it mistaken and go and take a look at what all people else has finished,” says Elliott.
“And that’s not simply the Pink Bull idea, that’s all of the ideas up and down the grid and saying what seems attention-grabbing and why.
“As an ex-aerodynamicist, I’d say that what you attempt to do is perceive what you assume is occurring within the circulation subject, work out what you wish to do with the circulation subject, after which develop the bodywork shapes from there.
“We’ll go and look and say, ‘what we predict the Pink Bull bodywork does and why does it do this?’ – the identical for all the opposite automobiles up and down the grid, after which see what we will be taught from that, see what we will apply.
“Then possibly you’ll see adjustments this yr, possibly you’ll see adjustments subsequent yr. And we’ll possibly we’ll keep on with the place we’re.
“They’re the questions we’re attempting to reply.”
Remaining methodical throughout a irritating season has been key to Mercedes chipping away at its deficits.
The sidepods should not solely liable for the porpoising that dogged the crew within the early races, have even much less to do with the poor journey high quality that battered Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in Monaco and Azerbaijan specifically, and are unlikely to be the basis reason for the poor tyre warm-up that has hampered nearly all of qualifying classes and early race stints.
Understanding all of that has been a far higher precedence for Mercedes, which has typically sounded misplaced by 2022. Primarily as a result of the automotive has hardly been solely hopeless.
What Mercedes has discovered notably annoying is how the W13 has proven glimpses of efficiency, simply sufficient to persuade the engineering crew that the potential seen within the knowledge actually is achievable – however not sufficient for the race crew to have gotten a correct deal with on precisely what it’s that places it in the precise window.
“It sucks you in a bit, from an engineering viewpoint,” Shovlin admits.
France was a great instance. There, Mercedes anticipated to be robust. However by the weekend, and even qualifying, its automotive efficiency different wildly by the lap and there was no apparent motive why – then come Sunday’s grand prix the race tempo was robust and, due to some assist from Ferrari and Pink Bull, Mercedes scored its first double podium of the yr.
“Inside one session we go from completely uncompetitive within the first sector to the most effective in sector one,” says crew boss Toto Wolff. “From uncompetitive in sector one, dreadful, to being the quickest in sector one on the finish. And the alternative within the final sector.
“So clearly there’s one thing occurring – whether or not it’s wind-affected or tyre-dependent – that’s simply not engaged on our automotive.
“The automotive is on the sting. And between hero and nil there’s only a super-fine margin that we don’t appear to hit.”
This was completely illustrated per week later in Hungary. Some set-up experiments went awry on Friday and left the crew with plenty of work to do. Important adjustments had been made in a single day – a troublesome process, however one Shovlin says was useful given how a lot it taught the crew about what didn’t work on the automotive – and by the point the monitor dried for qualifying the automotive was night-and-day totally different.
For most likely the primary time this season, each drivers had a confidence within the automotive that had beforehand been absent in qualifying. Russell put it on pole and Hamilton reckoned it might have been a entrance row lockout had he not had a DRS downside on his last run.
Within the race, Russell led the primary stint earlier than slipping again, Hamilton charged by from eighth, and Mercedes banked one other double podium.
OK, there’s nonetheless a lingering tempo deficit to Pink Bull and Ferrari. However these Mercedes performances have been achieved with the identical core idea – and sure, the identical sidepods too – that was being questioned only a few races beforehand. As Shovlin says: “We’ve been capable of apply these enhancements to the present bundle, which is an effective signal.”
It’s been essential for Mercedes as a result of the crew wants route for 2023. Solely by understanding as a lot as doable concerning the W13 design can Mercedes decide with any confidence whether or not its core ideas must be carried over or what particular areas – sidepods or in any other case – should be tailored.
The efficiency pattern, and outcomes, present that persevering with to develop the W13 has clearly paid off for Mercedes. It has rewarded the crew for its perseverance and diligence. And that’s very helpful with a comparatively steady algorithm for 2023 on the horizon (ignoring the tweaks to the diffuser throat top and raised ground edges that are actually official).
“We have to simply proceed to maintain an open thoughts,” says Russell.
“I don’t assume altering the automotive idea goes to make us go any sooner, possibly the opposite to be sincere. Typically you’ve simply acquired to stay to the method and carry on pushing. And that’s troublesome to do if you’re off the tempo and issues don’t appear to be going your means.
“However I imagine in each single individual inside our crew and I believe we’re making big progress in the meanwhile. We noticed that with the job we did [in qualifying in Hungary], you noticed with the tempo that each of us confirmed [in the race].
“Firstly of the season we had been ending races a minute behind first place. The final two races we’ve been inside 10 seconds. So I believe it’s undoubtedly entering into the precise route.”
The crux of that progress has been retaining the concentrate on confirming Mercedes’ unique improvement path, refining its instruments and guaranteeing higher correlation between simulations and the monitor.
The aerodynamic particulars for 2023 will come later. Whether or not which means new sidepods or not, Mercedes is lastly constructing a extra sturdy record of what works and what doesn’t.
“We simply proceed grinding away attempting to know,” says Wolff.
“However the slim sidepods have the least influence on our present issues and on efficiency.”