Mercedes has acknowledged that it is still unsure of all the peculiarities that make the W13 such a challenging Formula 1 vehicle.
Follow Us
The German automaker is coming off of a difficult 2022 season in which it struggled to keep up with the new rules era as well as competitors Red Bull and Ferrari. Its brand-new W13 car initially had a lot of porpoising issues and, after making some decent gains over the course of the year, nonetheless finished the season with a performance disadvantage to the front. Although the team claims the year taught them important lessons that will help it approach the new ground effect laws more effectively, it is not pretending to fully comprehend everything that went wrong this year.
In one of Mercedes’ customary post-race videos, chief strategist James Vowles was questioned about whether the team had complete control over the vehicle, which would mean that its W14 would have eliminated all the weaknesses “You cannot, in my opinion, say that we fully understand the W13 at this time or even over the course of the winter. “There have definitely been ups and downs, which is part of what I meant when I said that this automobile has components that we think we understand and those that are still not fully explained as a result. “However, if you look at the direction moving forward, the gaps to the front, especially on race pace, we made enormous amounts of progress, and you only do that by knowing where your problems are, working on them, and working as a team,” the author says.
Read More- Ricciardo is “relieved” to end his McLaren F1 stay
The design of Mercedes’ vehicle appears to be changing for the upcoming season. Because the W13’s top performance could only be achieved when running extremely low to the ground, which exposed it to harsher porpoising and bouncing, it is thought to have suffered greatly. The new strategy may be successful, but Mercedes is still aware that Red Bull and it still had a significant performance advantage in Abu Dhabi last weekend.
“The confidence we have is that now, here in the organization, we have our tools, our wind tunnel tools, our development tools, and our performance tools producing performance that is more than our competitors, and it’s allowing us to move further forward relative to them,” he said. “But there is still a gap, and Abu Dhabi really demonstrated it. This needs to be caught up over the course of the winter, and I believe we have a very effective structure and method in place to do so. “That growth you witnessed throughout the season will continue into the winter, and I think we will be in a very strong position next year,” the author said.
