It’s been a tough 15 months or so for Mercedes in regards to performance on track. After winning 8 consecutive Constructors’ Championships from 2014-2021, the new ground effect era of cars has not been kind to them.
The team debuted a zero sidepod concept at Bahrain testing in 2022. Although it sent social media into a frenzy when it was first revealed, it has fallen short of expectations.
Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained why they chose that concept at the start of Formula 1’s new era.
Photo credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
“What we were trying to achieve, when you develop that you are developing it blind. So you have not seen anyone’s 2022 car.
“We saw an opportunity in the regulations that allowed us to do that. We thought that would then create space to develop aerodynamically.
“But when we committed to it in 2022, you have got no idea whether someone has had a better idea or not. For us it was just that, that was where we saw the most opportunity and we went down that route.”
For a good portion of last year it was difficult to judge whether or not the zero sidepod idea was a good one or not as porpoising badly affected the W13.
Things started to look better as the season went on, with George Russell scoring a maiden pole in Hungary. He backed that up with a first win at Interlagos, too.
Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton was also in the mix for wins at Zandvoort and COTA in particular.
However, the start of 2023 has seen Mercedes continue to languish behind Red Bull Racing by a decent margin, and they have even found themselves behind Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso.
At Monaco last weekend, Mercedes brought a new sidepod design for the W14 to the famous street circuit and abandoned the zero sidepod concept once and for all.
Lewis Hamilton is 75 points behind Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship after Sunday’s race, and F1’s most successful ever driver has only stood on the podium once in the opening six races. George Russell has yet to have a rostrum visit this year following his costly mistake on Sunday.
Shovlin explained why they ditched the old concept and the “painful process” it brings in the short-term.
“In terms of why have we now moved away from it, fundamentally we have had a good go at that design. There were elements of it that were useful but you cannot fully understand the benefits of another concept unless you put it on the tunnel and you work and work on it for months. You never put these things on and you get the instant gain.
“So really it was just that acceptance that we have had a good go at this concept. It is not delivering the development rate that we are seeing from some of our competitors.
“Changing concept is a fairly painful process because you lose development time just to get back to where you were. So it is good in a sense that we have taken that pain now and the benefits of what we have done, that is going to come more in the future.
“So in the next weeks and months and carrying into the next car, that is where you would really expect to see that.
“But it is interesting aerodynamically and certainly our aerodynamic group are quite happy to be working on something different because it creates new opportunities and new learning.
“So there is a lot of excitement there of what we can do going forward.”
