Mercedes in 2023 has been marred with another underwhelming performance, and much of the blame goes to their ‘not so good’ aerodynamics. However, Mercedes is ready to make amends, but it’s unknown to what extent. However, as per The Race, Toto Wolff, former Adrian Newey’s aide and now Aston Martin engineer Dan Fallows advises that if Mercedes wants to make radical changes, they must do it now.
Aston Martin, in 2022 came up with a different aero design. But seeing their struggles, they decided to improvise and change the fundamental design of their car midway through the season. At that time, they were accused of ‘green Red Bull’ and still are being.
But they surely had some different ideas and continued developing that design even in 2023 and are seeing impressive results. But Fallows says it took them a long time before changes started to work for them, which should serve as a lesson to others.
Toto Wolff should hurry
Mercedes was reported to bring major updates in Imola. However, with the race cancelation there, nobody knew what changes would be made, as they were incredibly hyped. But many outlets speculated that Mercedes could abandon the zero-side pod design and go with some conventional sidepod design. And Fallows thinks that if Mercedes wishes to do that, then they should do it soon.
“It’ll be interesting to see whether anybody does shift it, but the longer time goes on, the harder that is to do,” said Fallows.
The upgrades Mercedes intended to plan in Imola are now pushed for Monaco Grand Prix. However, the overtaking limitation of the track could prevent Mercedes from displaying its actual progress. So the Spanish Grand Prix would be a better place to analyze their development.
The budget cap prevents big changes
While the media report that Mercedes would overhaul their sidepod concept, Wolff has constantly opposed that narrative. The Mercedes team boss claims that the stringent budget cap prevents making a radical step like changing the sidepod.
Instead, he thinks minor changes would be pushed over the year to remain within the limit. In the initial days of the season, Wolff only revealed that Mercedes had given up on this season and would fight against its closest opponents- Ferrari and Aston Martin.
Those words have been validated by James Allison’s return as the technical director. Some reports suggest that Allison is brought in, keeping the objective to contend for the championship in 2024 in mind.
