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How much Toto Wolff’s team spent on fixing Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s complaints?

Samriddhi Jaiswal
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How much Toto Wolff's team spent on fixing Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton and George Russell's complaints?

The 2022 technical regulations brought a lot of complications for the Mercedes F1 team. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell complained about the porpoising issues of the car constantly.

As the season progressed, the team did get to the top of their problems. But it came through a massive investment in the factory.

Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin revealed the changes the Silver Arrows made to overcome the horrific bouncing in the cars.

He said that the biggest change was made to the team’s CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics) or in simpler words, the Virtual Wind Tunnel systems.

This helped the team identify the issue in a much better way and find a solution. Shovlin explained that the team needed to understand what was happening with the W13 aerodynamically before finding a way towards development.

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What is CFD and how did it help Lewis Hamilton and George Russell?

With porpoising arising as a problem in the 2022 season, the term – Wind Tunnel – was thrown around a lot in the paddock.

What this actually means is that it’s a technology that helps engineers in computing the aerodynamic forces that arise.

With the Wind Tunnel, engineers experiment the phenomenon of aerodynamics by blowing wind over a real object in a controlled environment. Thus, measuring the aerodynamic performance.

In CFD or virtual wind tunnel(as the name suggest) this experiment is conducted in the form of a computer simulation. It allows aerodynamicists with a wide range of operating conditions.

Shovlin explained that the porpoising mechanism could not get captured in any of the previous modellings of the car. Therefore, the team had to upgrade their CFD systems and develop a range of technology to find a fix for the problem.

How much does the virtual wind tunnel cost?

The cost of operating the CFD varies depending on the kind of usage. For a simple 2D analysis it costs around a typical $2,000.

But the ones used in the automotive industry are used for a more complex analysis of the aerodynamics of the car. Therefore it costs around $20,000.

Though, a single run of the simulation is usually not enough to draw results. Hence, the engineers run it multiple times. Complex problems often require two to five weeks. So, the Mercedes F1 team might have invested a lot more amount to fix the problem.

Also Read: $12 million worth Charles Leclerc didn’t even invest in comfortable gaming chair to sit long hours for streaming

About the author

Samriddhi Jaiswal

Samriddhi Jaiswal

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Samriddhi Jaiswal is an F1 editor and writer at The SportsRush. She started her career as a business journalist but soon found her calling in lights out here we go! Samriddhi has been a Ferrari fan even when her interaction with F1 was occasional. Her first real experience with the thrilling sport came when Charles Leclerc clinched his iconic victory in Spa and Monza and painted the track red. Now, a Tifosi, Samriddhi is a hardcore fan of the prancing horse and can relate to the chaos within the Italian camp and also admires Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Off the track, she finds her home in books and musical instruments.

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