With the troubled 2022 season now over, it’s time for seat tests at Mercedes. George Russell was the protagonist of the video released by the social channels of the Brackley team. In a Formula 1 race that is increasingly careful not to reveal itself, it is precisely the multimedia content that often reveals too many details that the designers would like to keep secret. Only last winter, McLaren had erroneously leaked the pull-rod scheme in advance for the front suspension, while Alpine had demonstrated the shrewd installation of the lateral anti-intrusion cone inside the bottom, a solution which was later celebrated and futilely concealed by technical director Matt Harman.
Mercedes was able not to reveal too much about the W14 during the seat test for 2023. However, the images still filtered the modifications to the roll-hoop, the structure that protects the driver in the event of rollover, of particular interest as they reflect the corrections to the technical regulation for next season. In detail, it is noted how the outline of the structure is less sharp and decidedly more rounded compared to the same component of 2022, thus complying with the revised legislation after Zhou’s accident at Silverstone, in which the roll-hoop had detached leaving only the halo to protect the Chinese driver.
In fact, the 2023 technical regulation reads how “Any part of the structure above 935mm in height shall be designed to support a 15g impact of the car against the ground and be made of an abrasion resistant material”. To this we owe the imposition of a minimum radius of curvature of 20 mm above 950 mm in height with respect to the base reference plane. Mercedes has thus smoothed out the previous edges, while far more important changes are expected for Alfa Romeo, the blade design adopted on the C42 having been banned. On the other hand, no other modifications on the W14 roll-hoop are visible, despite the strengthening necessary to withstand the more severe load tests required by the Federation.
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