Mercedes is considering changing the W13. The silver arrow is not meeting the expectations of the Star brand in the era of ground-effect single-seaters. It is very likely that next year’s car is not the daughter of this car and in Brackley they decide to start from a blank sheet, calling into question the concept of zero-sidepods, but not only.
And besides, the big boss, Toto Wolff, defined the machine in Baku as a “shit box”. The colorful expression makes it clear how the silver arrow is now seen at Brackley.
the reinforcement between the airfoil that covers the anti-intrusion cone and the belly of the Mercedes W13
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
We were told that the biggest problem with the car signed by the technical director, Mike Elliott, was porpoising, that is to say the hopping that arises at the aerodynamic level, making you lose load and forcing the engineers to increase the minimum height from the ground.
Wanting to give a spannometric value that varies from car to car, we can venture that by raising an F1 of 20 mm you lose about 10% of the downforce and one second in the lap time. As we understand well, this is enormous for those who have the ambition, after eight world titles in a row, to look up in the world rankings.
Mercedes W13, detail of the unloaded rear wing of Baku
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Mercedes with the package of updates brought to Barcelona has reduced, but not solved the problem and in Brackley, supported by Stuttgart, they decided to look forward, because Baku also confirmed the problems that afflict a car born wrong.
In spite of the Red Bull, which has a long front wheelbase to move the wheel away in front of the bellies and make sure that the turbulence of the moving tire can dirty the flow destined for the Venturi channels, the Mercedes has limited itself to respecting the minimum distance that there must be between the front axle and the rear view mirrors which is 1,730 mm.
Having moved the radiator vents further back, which are vertical to have a minimal front section, that airfoil containing the upper anti-intrusion cone and supporting the mirrors was invented.
These basic design choices led to having the driver seated further forward with the engine than the RB18, and the rear was chosen to have a rather long gearbox with a spacer between 6 cylinders and transmission. A concept which, evidently, makes it difficult to balance the car as it transfers the necessary energy to the tires.
And, then, the easiest solution might be to converge on certain solutions that have been shown to work best. The biggest problem will be compliance with the budget cap: since the regulation will remain stable, it will be possible that certain ideas that will be finalized for 2023 can be transferred to the current car. But it is not easy to predict the timing: will we already see something at Silverstone, or will we have to wait for Hungary?
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