What game is Mercedes playing? After the presentation of the W14, the Brackley team put its hands forward: Toto Wolff, CEO and team principal, was cryptic when he said that Mike Elliott’s technicians are ready to change the silver arrow if it doesn’t hold up pace of Red Bull and Ferrari in the first races of the season.
A strange statement, not very consistent with the thought of a team that, net of a flop 2022 season, has always dictated the pace in the hybrid era. And, according to rumors filtering from Brackley, the 48-year-old technical director from Saint Austell was able to count on the support of James Allison, the CTO who has had more than one eye on the W14.
The Star has maintained the identity of the zero-pods single-seater: a solution that makes the W14 a unique single-seater on the grid, given that Williams too has converted with the FW45 to aerodynamic concepts more in keeping with the logic of current ground-effect single-seaters.
Comparison Mercedes W13 W14 – the bellies of the black arrow are profoundly different
Photo by: George Piola
The season that begins with the pre-season tests in Bahrain offers us a lot of food for thought, because Red Bull and Ferrari have maintained two different development strands that the opponents have tried to mix with sloping bellies and excavations on the upper part of the side .
Mercedes, on the other hand, insists on the third way. A courageous choice carried out with determination by the Brackley staff because the data that emerged from the wet shakedown at Silverstone show that both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell found a much more “true” car than the approach of the disappointing W13.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 during shakedown at Silverstone
Photo by: Mercedes-AMG
But having a more drivable single-seater on your hands doesn’t mean it’s also more competitive, so the knots will only be resolved in the three days of testing at Sakhir. The Brixworth engineers have worked on the power delivery of the power unit: in Mercedes AMG HPP they are convinced that they still have the most powerful 6-cylinder, but that they have paid for the switch to E10 petrol.
Confirmed the role of unquestionably more reliable propeller, this year they aim to show how much performance it can be after the interventions granted on the software: while controlling the temperatures in the combustion chamber, the pilots should have 18 more horsepower than would emerge from a unit that was approved last March.
Mercedes corrected on the W14 the errors that had emerged on the first ground effect car and which, not only due to the effect of porpoising, was considered the “grasshopper” of the paddock, with uncontrollable jumping. The harmful effect of the aerodynamic pumping was amplified by a set-up that was too rigid which caused the rear suspension to buffer, creating further rebounds which were seen not only in the straight line at the highest speeds, but also in certain bends. Now the new kinematics will allow for less rigid set-ups, reducing the instabilities that lead to sudden losses in aerodynamic load.
Mercedes W14, detail of the central wing which is removable from the chassis
Photo by: Mercedes-AMG
The lesson has been understood and, although the similarity of the black arrow recalls the W13, the two cars have a completely different approach: the central wing which contains the anti-intrusion cone and acts as a support for the mirror is a detachable element from the frame , so it is conceivable that the design of the bellies could be convertible towards a less extreme solution, perhaps proposing tall and narrow mouths with the opening under a more shapely belly.
Mercedes W14: here is the channel in the bazooka that allows you to extract heat and manage it with a flow that goes towards the beam wing
The drawing of George Piola highlights another macroscopic aspect: the mouth of the W14 radiators is not only no longer triangular, but rectangular (high and narrow). It has been significantly moved back (we’re talking about 50-70 mm) to move it away from the front wheel and avoid harmful slipstream turbulence. The idea was to have better fluid dynamics in the bellies with better heat evacuation from the radiators thanks to the bazooka which brings the hot flow to be energized in a channel dug into the sides of the engine hood.
Mercedes W14 detail with the modular gills above the side
Photo by: Gianluca D’Alessandro
Furthermore, the black arrow adopts a very low side that was not present on the W13 and freed up a huge pavement by reattaching the flow which, instead, is preferred to be directed towards the outside of the rear wheel. Mercedes intervened on the car’s hardware to limit the excessive drag that limited the maximum speed, forcing the car to adopt very resistant wings.
If the corrections adopted bear fruit, Mercedes will maintain its current appearance, otherwise it is easy to predict that the central wing will be extracted and in its place a Red Bull-style belly will appear complete with a lower recess and, in that case, there will be it will be the definitive abjuration of a concept that should have been successful.
The double win in the Brazilian GP with the W13 has left the door open and in Brackley they hope to have found the key to the problem…
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