Gary Anderson on what to expect from new Mercedes

Gary Anderson, former race car designer and now The Race expert, talks about what Mercedes can achieve with a host of new products the team should showcase at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

The upcoming race weekend at Imola is very important for Mercedes as the team is preparing an upgraded version of the car for it, but is there any certainty it will add?

The W14 gets an improved front suspension, new side pontoons and floor. Mercedes is trying to achieve a more stable behavior of the car on the track, improving the basic characteristics of the chassis so that it can reduce ground clearance, hoping that this will slightly increase the downforce.

The process of technical search involves the development of certain solutions, because you can go to the goal in different ways. Each specialist has their own approach to things, but if it were possible to copy a Red Bull car without much effort, this would not be a bad method either. However, those who copy are inevitably in a position of catching up, so more ambitious measures are needed to try to reach the level of leaders.

Success is always based on a certain concept around which the chassis is built. For example, the Ferrari and Red Bull cars have very noticeable external differences, but both let you fight for pole positions – therefore roughly the same results can be achieved in different ways. But they will only be consistently high if the team has bet on the right concept.

It is clear that Mercedes wants to be able to adjust the ride height of the W14 in the same way as Red Bull, but they do not have enough room to maneuver. They cannot substantially change the geometry of the rear suspension, as the gearbox design is homologated for the whole season and it will not be possible to correct anything until 2024.

Here’s what Toto Wolff said about the W14 over the weekend in Miami: “You can’t call our car a good one. I can’t name what the main problem is, but the base stats are generally not high enough and we don’t all get out.”

But Mercedes won the Constructors’ Championship eight years in a row, so you can’t say they don’t know how to build good cars. And the W14 can’t be called absolutely bad, because it lets the team riders climb the podium.

Mercedes must carefully analyze the methods on which the choice of areas of technical research is based. Ground effect machines are different from the previous generation and require a different mindset.

Moreover, we must not forget that the effective accumulation of knowledge and experience takes place during the overcoming of difficulties, and not during times of team dominance in the championship, when you are consistently two or three tenths ahead of the closest rivals.

In new generation cars, more than 50% of downforce is generated in the lower section, with the front and rear wing and other elements of the aerodynamic body kit providing the rest. Very roughly, this can be reduced to the following ratio: 50% – the bottom, 25% each – the wings.

The clearance of the car affects the operation of the front wing to some extent, mainly under braking, but the underside is a completely different story. The lower the ground clearance, the more downforce it generates. It seems that Mercedes is trying to reduce ground clearance, but it’s not just that, but whether you can consistently maintain the desired level of ground clearance.

If I were involved in the W14 upgrade process, I would look very closely at the area of ​​the bottom where the center of air pressure is located. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s too far forward on this machine, shifting even more in this direction at high speeds, though I’d like to avoid that.

If the ground clearance decreases as you increase speed, this means that the pressure point under the bottom is moving quickly along the car, possibly causing the car’s unstable behavior and confusing drivers.

In addition, this may explain why she is not fast enough on the straights. In an effort to prevent the center of pressure from shifting forward at high speeds, Mercedes needs to increase the percentage of downforce generated by the rear wing. This in turn leads to an increase in resistance.

Perhaps this is also the reason why Mercedes uses a more flexible front wing than other teams. It is clear that this element passes the mandatory bending test that the FIA ​​conducts, but TV screens clearly show how much it bends. Although the technical regulations categorically prohibit the use of flexible elements of aerodynamics.

In general, the pressure point under the floor of the car should remain stable as the ride height changes. Better yet, if it moves back a bit, the rear of the car will act more stable under braking.

During practice at Imola, Mercedes must complete as many laps as possible to understand to what extent changes in the properties of the aerodynamic platform affect the behavior of the car on the track.

Here’s what Toto Wolff said about this: “I don’t believe in miracles, but so far the stability of the car and the predictability of its behavior leave a lot to be desired. If we can fix this and partially solve the problem by improving the design of the front suspension, then we are definitely on the right track. Then it will improve the handling and increase the pace.”

Any way to reduce the vertical movement of the chassis as the longitudinal loads change is good because it helps to increase the stability of the bottom and prevent the center of pressure from shifting in this area.

If Mercedes can achieve the same front suspension stability as Red Bull’s, it could make a huge difference to the braking performance of the W14. But on the RB19, the rear suspension is also very stable – these two areas are closely linked.

If the rear part of the car does lift up during braking, it puts more stress on the front axle, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Mercedes cars lock up in heavy braking zones at Imola.

You can only fully understand the behavior of the upgraded car after it has been tested on different tracks over several race weekends. Progress isn’t a switch that you just flip and the light comes on. This process is more like a rheostat: the light gradually gets brighter each time the car leaves for the track.

Mercedes is confident that the direction of refinement of the chassis has been chosen correctly, but whether that is actually the case will become clear during the weekends in Imola, Monaco and Barcelona. Until then, it’s best not to jump to conclusions.