In the test drives for the new Formula 1 season, Mercedes is surprisingly behind. Lewis Hamilton even believes that victories are not an issue at first. However, the competitors Red Bull and Ferrari are skeptical about how much truth there is in the statements.
Mercedes has a credibility problem, at least with the competition. “That’s typical for Mercedes,” said Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz during the test drives for the new Formula 1 season: “First they talk to the others, then we come to the first race and they drive us to the ground.” In previous years, Mercedes had regularly questioned their own superiority before the start of the season and then led the field in a superior manner. So it’s no surprise that Sainz & Co. don’t care too much that the Silver Arrows don’t think they’re in world champion form after the final days of testing in Bahrain.
If Mercedes did that for the first time, Sainz continued, “then maybe I would believe it.” Looking back at the past, in which 15 out of 16 possible World Cup titles since 2014 followed silver records, “I don’t give that much credit,” says the Spaniard. And even Max Verstappen, as the reigning driver’s champion in the Red Bull responsible for the only non-Mercedes title in the recent past, gives little to the self-proclaimed weakness of Lewis Hamilton’s team: “It’s always like that.”
The concern, however, appears to be genuine. At least that’s how the statements of the seven-time world champion read, who is striving for his eighth title in his 16th season in Formula 1, which would make him the sole record winner past Michael Schumacher. “If we had that oversteer and handling issues just to hide our true pace then we would be really, really, really good.” The 37-year-old went even further in his assessment of the W13: “In my opinion, we are not in a position to drive for victories at the moment.”
“Mercedes hasn’t found a way to fix this”
One problem area seems to concern Mercedes in particular compared to the competition: “porpoising”, the hopping of the completely newly developed cars, especially on the straights. This is due to the ground effect, which is allowed again this season for the first time since the early 1980s, generates contact pressure with the help of the underbody and is intended to reduce the dependence on front and rear wings with optimal flow. One of the central rule changes with which Formula 1 wants to create more balance again.
When porpoising, however, the underbody touches the track, which interrupts the air flow and the car begins to rock. All ten racing teams struggled with this problem during the tests, but Mercedes more so than the competition. According to “Autosport”, the rocking of the W13 is much more pronounced than that of Red Bull and Ferrari, who have made the strongest impression so far: “And Mercedes has not yet found a way to fix it.”
This in turn is problematic because it leads to unpredictable driving behavior. The braking distance increases significantly when the air flow has just broken off and the car has rocked upwards. While most drivers struggle with it at the end of straights, Hamilton and his new Williams-promoted teammate George Russell in the Mercedes also have to deal with it in corners – where optimal downforce is even more important for maximum speed, because that’s what it’s all about car otherwise carries outwards out of the curve.
Simple solution is not practical
Russell sees “quite a lot of potential in the W13”, but “we still have to find a way to be able to use our performance.” So far, the jumping up and down has prevented the car from being set up in the best possible way. The simple solution is to raise the car, especially towards the rear, i.e. to drive with a little more ground clearance. That solves the porpoising problem. However, it also pushes the Mercedes out of the area where it works best, i.e. where it is presumably the fastest. This in turn costs lap time, even a lot, in a thousandth sport like Formula 1 not an acceptable way out.
According to “Autosport”, Mercedes tried several solutions during the test drives. Raising the rear and changing the underbody would have brought the desired progress, engineer Andrew Shovlin is quoted as saying: “There’s still a lot of pace to be gained if we keep improving in terms of bouncing and the car is better on the track. ” Despite all his reluctance, Hamilton was still confident that his work tool had plenty of potential for success: “We just have to get it out and fix a few problems, that’s what we’re working on.”
How serious and, above all, persistent the problems really are before the season opener in Bahrain next Sunday (4 p.m. / Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de) is pure speculation. None of the ten teams should have already played all of their (supposed) trump cards. And anyway, the first Grand Prix of the 2022 season is just a snapshot in a year in which the cars will change from race to race. Max Verstappen knows that too, the defending champion, who set the clear best time on the last day of testing, but put it into perspective: “The most important thing this season, with these new cars, will be the speed of development.”