Mercedes are clueless about the pace potential of their car in 2022 even if they manage to solve their porpoising issue which has halted them.
Nobody right before the first Grand Prix would have thought that Mercedes would be struggling like this. Lewis Hamilton clocking out in Q1 was something far from imaginable.
Yet, in 2022, both things happened. The Brackley-based team is currently unable to challenge for the win, as their problem with porpoising is yet to be solved.
Though, Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin claims that even his team manages to solve the excessive bouncing. They have no idea where their pace will stand.
What’s gone wrong for Lewis Hamilton and F1 Constructor champions, is there a ‘quick fix’ for 2022? 🤔
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) April 6, 2022
“That is probably priority number one because that’s ultimately preventing us from running the car where we’d like to run it for optimum performance,” Shovlin told Motorsport.com.
Mercedes working to pull itself out
Currently, Mercedes is diagnosing the overall issue. The W13 is very slow due to porpoising when it comes to the straight-line speed. Thus it is easy for Red Bull and Ferrari to easily overtake them. Shovlin says that it is vital for Mercedes to come out of that problem.
“We’re well aware that there are other teams that have got on top of this problem faster than we have, that’s not the standard we normally work to.,” said Shovlin.
“Every bit of effort at the factory is going into getting on top of this, making sure we don’t neglect normal car development. But there’s a lot of work trying to pull us out of this situation at the moment.”
Mercedes in Melbourne wouldn’t be having any significant upgrades. They were expected to have lower downforce rear wings, but a last-minute update suggests that they won’t be doing it.
Also read: George Russell expects a similar struggle for Mercedes at the Australian GP
