Mercedes said it has not considered copying rivals’ sidepod designs like other F1 teams have copied solutions from benchmarks Red Bull and Ferrari.
Mercedes F1 has gone completely its own way for 2022, adopting a “zero pod” solution for the W13. This was very different from Red Bull’s idea and Ferrari’s concept.
Mercedes F1 has endured difficulties with its 2022 F1 car, but the team has remained adamant that the problem has nothing to do with its very different sidepod solution.
Rather than trying to change the sidepods, the goal was to fix the porpassing issue that ruined the first part of the season, but the updates made to most other aspects of the car would eventually win. It helped me get the
Andrew Shovlin, trackside technical director at Mercedes, said at one point he felt the team should focus less on the sidepod solution, as he was unsure whether the sidepod solution was causing such a significant drop in performance.
Andrew Shovlin said he believed the best way for teams to be successful in F1 is to explore their own ideas rather than simply copying others.
“From an aerodynamic standpoint, most of the engineering is invisible under the floor,” Shovlin said.
“That’s where a lot of the work is.”
“The sidepod concept still needed to be done realistically this year, but if we were focused on finding a quicker solution, we’d copy and implement it. And we could see what it does.”
“But our goal has always been to figure it out ourselves, learn and find our own way. If you want to win and you want to win races and world championships, copy other people’s projects. Because you can’t get there if you do.”
“All of our other cars had pioneering features and clever ideas. We have tried to lead the way in technology and will continue to do so.”
Despite sticking to a sidepod solution for 2022, Mercedes F1 is considering rethinking the concept of the car, so that could change next year.
Red Bull’s sidepod design wasn’t the only thing that caught the eye this year. The team’s low-drag concept contributed to impressive top speeds, which provided a significant advantage throughout the season.
Andrew Shovlin says Mercedes, which suffered from high drag, was aware of the stretch but wasn’t obsessed with simply increasing its straight-line speed potential in 2023.
“It’s hard to see where anyone is going to design when there’s a whole new set of rules,” Andrew Shovlin explained.
“Their cars seem to have less drag with the same wings. We had to race with very high downforce levels in the first half of the year and it certainly didn’t help us in that regard.”
“But if you look at Brazil, we didn’t have the fastest cars, but we managed to overtake them and get 1-2. , one of the fastest cars in the straight is Williams, so it doesn’t define the level of performance.”
“But when the performance levels are very similar, that’s a nice clear advantage. So that’s something we want to correct. The priority is always the basic performance of the car and putting it in the right place. Is”
Mercedes F1 was able to deal with most of the overtaking problems during the season, but still experienced some problems in the second half of the season.
Andrew Shovlin fears the problem will recur as teams add more downforce to their cars over the winter, but the new floor edge rule is also helping to overcome some of the more obvious problems.
“The more load you put on the floor, the more likely you are to have these problems,” Shovlin said.
“We made good progress on the straight. In the first races at Imola, Jeddah and Bahrain the car was bouncing badly at high speed and we managed it well.”
“We still had issues when the car was low in the fast corners and the pavement was touching, and it can be a bit unstable, but next year’s rule changes will help.”
“But basically they don’t solve the problem. They will make things a little easier for the team. But the work we put into learning and understanding earlier in the year has turned into a good foundation for at least next year I hope it helps you to do that
