The technical path of the Brackley team was one of the most controversial in the 2022 season. Right from the start, the W13 appeared to be a car with great unpredictability both in terms of aerodynamic performance and in response to changes in set-up, inevitably influencing the development of the single-seater. The difficulties in understanding the evils that have plagued and afflict the Mercedes 2022 have hindered the establishment of an update program on a solid and well-defined basis, generating an alternation of progress and setbacks in terms of performance. Overall, the combined work of aerodynamic changes and set-up corrections improved the competitiveness of the W13 in the first part of the season, but the future of the project and its concept is uncertain in view of the season finale and of the 2023 car.
The team led by Toto Wolff has approached the technical regulations setting the car with the central body tapered to the limit, in order to channel as much air as possible towards the rear end to favor the extraction of the flows from the diffuser and the load generated by the bottom. Due to the failure to predict porpoising, however, the team had not taken into account how much the aerodynamic rebound forced to preventive setups that severely limited the actual potential of the car. Impossible to establish from the outside whether, without porpoising, the concept of the W13 would actually prove to be a winner and more effective than the Red Bull and Ferrari designs, with the wide body to space out the turbulence coming from the front wheels. In any case, Mercedes, thanks to the amazing and encouraging load values returned by the simulations in the wind tunnel, has decided to take the concept even more extreme, further tapering the bellies with the package introduced during the second test session in Bahrain.
Although the project has made it below expectations, unlike other teams on the grid, Mercedes has decided not to retrace its steps, retaining the tapered setting and rejecting any distortion. The development in the first part of 2022 was therefore managed to stem the limits of the project, above all the sensitivity to porpoising and aerodynamic instability. These criticalities contributed to the lack of load of the W13, which in turn triggered difficulties in warming up the tires and an excess of resistance to running, caused by the attempt to compensate the gaps in the bottom load with the wings.
On the occasion of the pre-season tests in Bahrain, the W13 was equipped with the evolutionary package that took the starting concept to the extreme. The side radiators have been relocated to allow for the design of a body that is as slim as possiblemodifications accompanied by a new nose for a different channeling of the flows and by a car bottom which, however, was rejected before the inaugural Grand Prix.
The first interventions to improve the performance of the underbody were carried out in Imola, concentrated in the rear part of the bottom and in the external flaps of the diffuser. The long-awaited package to counter porpoising has arrived in Barcelona, with the modifications studied with an overall vision. The new bottom was accompanied by the vortex generator placed on the keel at the entrance to the flat bottom and the refinement of the deflectors of the rear wheel units. Subsequently in Canada the external fairings of the rear suspension were re-profiled, indicating a correction in the management of flows towards the rear, while in the Canadian free practice a new bottom was also tested but was promptly rejected.
In England the W13 presented itself with a major new package of updates, once again to reduce the sensitivity to porpoising and increase the load released by the underbody. The front suspension arms have been faired differently for a better channeling of the flows towards the lateral Venturi channels, a task to which the downwash appendages placed on the sides of the passenger compartment have contributed. The same bottom has been revised, both in the shape of the Venturi channel and in the outermost strip, modifications which have been followed by a further refinement of the rear edge in France.
Among the three top stables, Mercedes was the team that most frequently intervened on the front wing, another symptom of the difficulty of tuning the car. New flaps made their debut in Bahrain to extend the range of adjustments, while in Miami a wing with a particular shape of the endplates was introduced to accentuate the outwash effect, with the direction of vortices externally to the front wheels. The curvature of the same endplates was subsequently refined also in Barcelona and Munich. All in all, the progressive evolution of the front wing incorporates three different ends: changes to the sorting of flows towards the car body and the bottom; need to correct the balance of the car; calibration of the load on the front axle and consequent level of energy transferred to the tires to warm them up. Advances in thermal tire management have contributed to the encouraging performance in France and Hungary, partly the result of modifications to the cooling system of the front brake system made at Paul Ricard. The interventions in this area in fact affect the transfer of heat through the rim between the brake and the rubber, influencing the temperature and pressure of the tire.
Recurring porpoising and the car’s load gaps had prompted the team to start the season with a generously sized rear wing, in an attempt to compensate for the lacking bottom load. This choice, however, slowed down the W13 on the straight, accumulating further delay on the straight in addition to that already accused in the curve. The technical department then worked to improve the effectiveness of the wing, first by truncating the upper profile on the occasion of the trip to Jeddah and subsequently creating a new, more unloaded straight-profile wing for Miami. Months later, at Silverstone the Silver Arrows were equipped with new endplates at the rear, characterized by a marked outward curvature.
Overall, the development during the current season has brought the W13 closer to the top single-seaters, however denoting inconstancy in growth, with the steps forward that have often been followed by sudden drops and with updates that have not always worked. The season finale will also have to clarify the fate of the tapered bellies concept of the W13. It is realistic to hypothesize that the 2023 single-seater will be born with very different forms, but if the changes to the regulations were to effectively eliminate the porpoising problem, the slim lines of the current Silver Arrows could suddenly return to express the potential appreciated in the gallery of the wind.
Mercedes development 2022
-Bahrain: sides and radiators; nose with a greater excavation in the lower part; car bottom (rejected the second version tested in the FP1 Grand Prix); new end profiles of the front wing for changes to the aerodynamic balance; refinement of the vertical deflectors of the rear brake baskets.
-Saudi Arabia: double specification of low load rear wing;
– Australia: /
-Imola: downwash appendages in the center of the car to increase the air supply to the radiators; re-profiling of mirrors and fairing of the side impact structure to reduce the detachment of the flow; bottom lightening; raised floor in front of the rear wheels and new external diffuser flaps to increase load generation at the rear.
-Miami: low load straight profile rear wing; low load beam wing; front wing with more efficiency.
-Barcelona: front wing endplate; vortex generator on the keel at the entrance to the flat bottom; bottom; vertical deflectors outside the rear brake air intakes.
-Monaco: anterior wing endplate; adaptation of the steering kinematics.
-Baku: rear-view mirror appendix.
-Canada: fund (rejected); rear suspension outer fairing.
-Silverstone: bottom and Venturi channels grid; front suspension fairing; downwash appendages in front of the side air intakes; external flap of the bottom, rear wing endplate
-Austria: /
-France: back edge of the bottom; front wheel unit cooling.
-Hungary: /
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