Mercedes is eagerly awaiting the release of a major upgrade for its car at Imola after a trying weekend in Miami. The team failed to progress beyond Q2, and the performance of the car was far from what was hoped for. The car’s characteristics have caused the team’s competitive struggles, with the pace, performance, and lack of understanding of the car being a full spread of activities. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has said: “I think that the car is not a nice car, not a good car. It’s everywhere. I would say the performance is just really bad.” Lewis Hamilton has also suggested that the current car does not match up to Red Bull in any area. The car is unpredictable from session to session, and often without explanation, making it a “nasty piece of work.”
Major development step
Mercedes is set to introduce a major development step at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which consists of new sidepods and a modified front suspension. The team hopes that these tweaks will deliver a step forward in pace, but more importantly, that it will help engineers understand what went wrong with its 2023 challenger. Wolff explained: “This is what is happening with the front suspension and we are looking at bodywork solutions that are more conventional than ours, and that are going to create a different airflow. For me, it’s almost like a reset to what would have been a good start 12 months ago, and then to try to add performance.”
Looking forward
Mercedes is hoping that the upgrade will create a new baseline and take question marks out of the equation. The team wants to be able to say, “This is not the problem now that we have gone to a different concept.” Wolff believes that the car is not fast enough, and they have no comprehension of why that is between one session and the next. He stated: “It is not acceptable.” The team is looking to add performance and create a better steer of what has gone wrong with its 2023 challenger.
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