After the sprint at Imola, in which Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished 11th and 14th respectively, Lewis admitted his team would not be able to compete for the title this year.
However, the Mercedes engineers are preparing serious updates to the car for the sixth stage of the season, to be held in Barcelona from May 20-22. The team expects the innovations to solve the straight-line build-up problem and increase the efficiency of the W13.
“We know which direction to go,” team leader Toto Wolff said in Imola. “However, we have not yet found a solution, but we must eliminate weaknesses step by step. In the end, it all comes down to physics.”
Some experts believe that in the case of Mercedes, the superstructure is connected in straight lines to the underside of the car, most of which is not covered from above by the bodywork. It is believed that the wider side pontoons provide more stability of the machine on straight lines. Toto Wolff neither confirms nor disproves this theory.
“All the pluses and minuses of the car are connected to the bottom,” says Toto. “We’re not getting what we wanted from the car, but we have ideas that we want to test in the next races. I wouldn’t say our concept is wrong. We need to keep all its advantages, but eliminate the weaknesses.
According to Wolff, it is too early to write off W13 and start working on a fundamentally different concept: “Before we make such a decision, we must exhaust all the possibilities that science offers us. We need to change the areas we can.”
Source: F1 News
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