Mercedes missing the sweet spot
Someone seemingly mislaid the TV remote on the opening morning of the second pre-season test in Bahrain. The massive trackside screen that stands in the shadow of the Sakhir Tower at Turn 3 was tuned into the wrong channel. Instead of showing the live feed, as it would do over the remaining two days, it was oddly playing stock footage of an aquarium.
Add that to the porpoising phenomenon that has returned to Formula 1 in tandem with ground-effect, due to the limitations of wind tunnels and simulator software catching teams off guard, and there’s a marine theme in the early part of 2022.
The new size-zero Mercedes sidepods that broke cover at the Gulf venue only added to that. Where the narrow inlet seems to melt completely into the floor, which in turn ripples around the edges, the rear three-quarter angle of the W13 looks not unlike a cuttlefish.
It’s indicative of the radical approach taken by the design team in Brackley, but it’s a car concept that is struggling to be unlocked.
It still appears as though the Silver Arrow is vying with Alpine and Ferrari to be worst affected by porpoising.
Although there’s a deceptive bump 250 metres out from Turn 1 that upsets all cars, it’s clear that the Mercedes is still jumping up and down either side of that interference. The leading school of thought is that the W13 is producing almost too much downforce, pushing the floor closer to the ground to initiate the stalling. As the air repeatedly attaches and detaches itself, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell nauseatingly bob up and down ad nauseam.
This appears to be creating trouble away from the straights, too. One solution for the porpoising is to almost weld the car in place by stiffening the suspension as far as possible. But this comes to a head at Turn 10, the downhill cambered left-hander. With no give in the set-up, as the inside wheel goes light under braking, Hamilton is constantly locking up and understeering. Time and time again he misses the apex and is often abandoning the asphalt altogether to take to the runoff. What’s more, the complex floors and ultra-taut configuration mean the drivers appear reluctant to run over the kerbs at the risk of damaging the underfloor aero.
While Mercedes has previous for playing down its credentials in pre-season testing, and the W13 wouldn’t be the first machine Toto Wolff might label a “diva”, it’s not necessarily all smoke and mirrors this time. This Three-pointed Star looks to enjoy only a narrow operating window and, initially at least, Mercedes would seem to be struggling to find it, never mind open it.