Porpoising is a phenomenon that has caught all the teams on the grid unprepared at the dawn of the new technical cycle. Mercedes, however, is the team that has suffered the most, with Brackley’s technicians led by Toto Wolff who have pointed to the now well-known aerodynamic rebound as the main source of the problems that afflict the W13. In Miami the Silver Arrows were provided with updates to both wings, but the changes were not aimed at counteracting chronic porpoising, a need that was instead addressed with the changes made to the car in view of Barcelona.
In the pit lane of the Circuit de Catalunya the Mercedes was immortalized with a revised bottom along the side edge. The Barcelona specification differs from the previous one for the “knife” carbon flap that overlaps a notch, thus delineating a blow from the underbody environment towards the outside. This is the same artifice developed by other teams to counter porpoising, albeit in different variants: the opening offers an outlet to the flow below the car body, so that in critical conditions at high speed the air can “vent” towards the external, to avoid the stall of the bottom which triggers the aerodynamic rebound.
The free practice sessions scheduled at Montmelò will be crucial in determining whether the innovations developed at Brackley will succeed in keeping porposing under control. For Mercedes, the management of aerodynamic rebound is of absolute priority, as up to now it has imposed a strong compromise in set-up choices in terms of stiffness and ground clearance that have severely limited the load generation and potential of the W13. In spite of the inconspicuous changes, a possible attenuation of the porposing would guarantee the W13 a substantial leap forward. Eyes on Mercedes, therefore, in Barcelona, to see if the reigning champions have finally managed to find the cure for their ills.
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