Gary Anderson: Mercedes has nowhere to retreat

Gary Anderson, former race car designer and now The Race expert, believes Monaco’s urban circuit is far from the best place to test the updated Mercedes car, but it’s where the team will be showcasing an improved version of the W14 this coming weekend..

Mercedes is in a hurry to introduce a series of updates that the whole of Formula 1 has long been waiting for and that they went to test in Imola. But now he will be presented at the city circuit in Monaco next weekend, and the question is whether that is good or bad.

Someone will say that this is only good for the team, because they have an extra week at their disposal, during which they can try out different settings on the simulator and better understand the prospects of the chosen direction of chassis modernization. She was also given extra time to produce more spare parts.

It was expected that there would be three races in a row in May and this is quite a busy schedule so canceling one of these legs could be helpful.

However, working with the car on the track in Monaco and testing the effectiveness of a new approach to shaping the structure of the airflow around the W14 could prove problematic. To increase the speed of the machine, it is critical how the flow around the side pontoons interacts with the edges of the bed, as well as the current passing underneath.

The suspension system has also been revised to minimize changes in ride height and a shift in the center of pressure under the car’s underbody during braking. In order for the drivers and engineers to better adapt to all this and study the characteristics of the improved chassis, you need to complete as many laps as possible.

And to achieve this in Monaco is not so easy. Since this is a city circuit, its condition changes with each lap. At the beginning of the training, the surface is very slippery and the results from session to session can improve for a few seconds, just because a layer of used rubber appears on the asphalt.

In addition, the track is watered every night, so every day everything starts from the very beginning, if we talk about the grip level. In addition, there is a good chance that a rain front will come from Italy.

To better understand the level of aerodynamic loads, teams usually spend a long series of circles. But Monaco simply doesn’t have long enough straights to do that kind of work. I wouldn’t recommend doing this in a tunnel as it is not only dangerous but can also lead to erroneous results due to air pressure variations due to the proximity of the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. It would be better to postpone all this to Barcelona.

In addition, the circuit in Monaco has unique characteristics, which is why special requirements are placed on the car. There you need maximum downforce and drag does not play a major role.

As far as the mechanical settings are concerned, a compromise is necessary there too, as the track is uneven and the profile is different at different angles. Therefore, it is usually necessary to use softer settings, which is why the ground clearance must be increased more than usual. And if at the same time you try to figure out how the updated bottom of the car works, you will encounter additional difficulties.

When it comes to Monaco, we always say it’s a slow circuit, but everything is relative. There are indeed some slow turns where the steering wheel must be turned all the way, and where it is very important to achieve effective traction of the drive wheels with the track during acceleration. But I can assure you that before the Casino square, at the Tabac corner and in the chicane in front of the swimming pool, the riders need maximum calm.

These sections are not slow and there are no departure zones, so it is very important to fly as confidently as possible in these turns. Since the degree of adhesion varies greatly, one should simply try to keep up with these changes in the condition of the coating. Trying different settings at the same time is doubly difficult.

But Mercedes has no choice but to act this way. You can’t retreat anywhere. As far as is known, the car has undergone major changes, because it gets new side pontoons and a different geometry of the front suspension.

To show good speeds in Monaco, the riders have to find the right rhythm and fly with confidence. To achieve this, the car must not tend to understeer and when exiting slow corners the rear wheels must hold the track well. Otherwise, the risk of hitting the barriers is high.

And for the pool, the racer has to be brave enough to attack the curbs hard. But then, when the car lands, it is necessary that the grip of the wheels with the track is immediately restored. If this does not happen, the outer barrier will simply attract it like a magnet.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will have fun doing all these tasks in a heavily upgraded Mercedes car. If we’re talking about engineers, they’re going to have to worry because they’re waiting for riders to comment on how the new items work. At the same time, we must remember that the stopwatch will tell them the whole truth, and it never lies.

At least the Mercedes team travels from Monaco to Barcelona with more information on the behavior of the W14 than they would have had had they not decided to test the car this weekend.