Mike Elliott: We figured out what to change in the car

Mercedes team technical director Mike Elliott told Auto Motor und Sport in an interview how he managed to solve the problem with the bodywork…

Mike Elliott: “It’s hard to say if the sway is related to our chosen concept of minimal side pontoons. In fact, we were surprised that no one else found this loophole. We believe that the build is not related to the shape of the pontoons, but rather to the way we designed this car, what goals we set for ourselves when developing it.

At the start of the season, the build-up had to do with aerodynamics and hid the real problems of the car from us. It proved difficult to achieve high bottom stiffness so that it does not sag at high speeds. The innovations we brought to Barcelona largely solved this problem. The sway you saw at the end of the season was already caused by the bumps in the bottom of the track, which is typical of these machines with minimal suspension.

At first we could not explain why the results differ from job to job. Later, our forecasts became more accurate, we understood which route would suit us and where difficulties would arise. As a result, there was confidence in what exactly needs to be changed on the car so that this does not happen again in 2023. It encourages you to be optimistic, but in Formula 1 you are not sure of anything.”