At the start of last season, Mercedes suffered a lot from the build-up of the car on the straights. Auto Motor und Sport’s Michael Schmidt asked team boss Toto Wolff why they didn’t have their Adrian Newey, who foresaw and avoided this effect at Red Bull…
Toto Wolff: “In today’s capital market, I see analysts and investors in their 40s making the same mistakes as their predecessors did in the 2000s. Because they weren’t working then, and just reading in a book how the stock market crashed or the internet bubble burst was not enough.
The presence in Red Bull of a specialist who is well acquainted with the cars from those years when the “ground effect” was allowed in Formula 1 became an advantage for them. He knew about the occurrence of bunching at the minimum height of the suspension, which adversely affects handling.
We underestimated this effect, as evidenced by several decisions taken in October 2021. But I still think we have an excellent aero department. I hope last year’s experience will help us in the future.
Suddenly a second behind, we returned from heaven to earth. Besides, these weren’t two or three failed weekends that would let us know in which direction to move forward – everything took much longer. And gradually more and more questions came up. If the best engineers in the world just don’t understand what to do, it definitely affects the team.
But we always knew that at some point we would lose the advantage. In a difficult situation, we stuck together and continued to work, eventually finding a solution.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
