Mercedes continues to struggle to control the porpoising problems that have plagued the W13 since the start of the season and have left the team unable to challenge Ferrari and Red Bull.
As they continue to search for answers, he sees the next round of the Formula 1 calendar in Barcelona as a key moment to define his next steps.
Having run in pre-season testing with its original standard sidepod design, returning to that track at the Spanish GP will give it a golden opportunity to compare the performance and potential of the different concepts.
And, with not much progress being made so far this year, Mercedes believes a decision needs to be made soon whether to stick with the ‘no sidepods’ concept or do something different.
Asked by Motorsport.com whether it would be worth going back to the philosophy the car had in early testing if Circuit de Barcelona shows it to be the way forward, Wolff said: “I wouldn’t rule anything out, but we have to give all our people the benefit of the doubt”.
“We have built great racing cars in the past and we think this is the way forward. Barcelona will definitely be a point where we can correlate with what we saw in February and gather more data.”
“It also bothers me to say the same thing about collecting data and doing experiments, but it’s about physics and not about mysticism, and therefore you have to decipher the data.”
What Mercedes needs to achieve at the Spanish GP weekend is the answer to whether the theoretical performance benefits of the sidepod-less design can actually be achieved.
Having the data from the race on the Spanish track, compared to the test data, will give you the opportunity to better understand if the old concept – which in theory produces less downforce – is better.
The focus is on the fact that Mercedes’ ‘no sidepods’ concept may have had unintended consequences by exposing more of the ground , which has made the car increasingly sensitive to porpoising .
Wolff said: “If you walk the grid, you can see that the edges of our ground stick out a lot more than the others. That gives it a different shape, or a lot more scope, of possible instability.”
“I think that is where our concept varies. It is clear that the car we presented in Barcelona is much slower on paper, but we need to figure out how we can make the current car work in a predictable way for the drivers.
Although Mercedes does not yet know the answer to that question, Wolff is clear that after Barcelona the team will have to make a decision about the direction it follows in the future.
“I think we’re still committed to the current concept, and you have to be,” he said. “If you don’t believe, and you give the other a 50% chance, then we might as well switch now.”
“We’re staying true to the current concept. We’re not looking at each other to see if we like it better or not. It’s still good.”
“In fact, we have to understand, before making the decision to change to another concept, where we have gone wrong in one and ask ourselves what are the benefits and weaknesses of the other. That is a question that can only be answered by oneself.”
“We hope to have an answer after Barcelona, because that is the real correlation that we have. And by then, we will look in the mirror and say: have we made a mistake or not?”
