Toto Wolff says that the Mercedes has found an easier way out of its problems but they have not capitulated and taken it yet.
Following the 2022 technical regulations, Mercedes has not had a great start in the 2022 season. The Silver Arrows currently stand at third position in the constructors’ standings.
The W13 continues to face problems even after five races of the season. Team principal Toto Wolff explained that the team had found a more straightforward way out of their problems with the upcoming Spanish GP.
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— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 14, 2022
The team had introduced their radical zero-pod concept at the beginning of the season. But the concept is not yet delivering the kind of performance that the team feel can be achieved.
Wolff said that Mercedes could modify this version of the W13 and likely go faster than they currently are. But, the team are not yet at the capitulation point where they would go down this route to find downforce.
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Mercedes is probably faster
The Brackley-based team believes that a lot of their problems are due to porpoising for 2022. One way to reduce porpoising is by raising the ride height of the car, however, this comes at the cost of performance.
“I think there is an easy route out and you just say ‘we are not able to generate it over the floor’ and you patch it up, make it stiffer and see where you end up in performance,” said Wolff.
“That is probably faster than where we are at now, but we haven’t yet capitulated and gone back to the simpler solutions.”
However, Mercedes is not the only one suffering from the porpoising problem. “I think that everybody tries to chase downforce with a degree of ground-effect and that, obviously, is a tricky balance to get,” he said.
“Because if you are able to put it right, your car is going to be very quick and generally [have] downforce. But if you are not there or you get it wrong, it is what is happening to us at the moment.”
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