They have tried, but they will not arrive in time. The fund that should get Mercedes back on the right track after a disastrous start to the 2022 F1 World Championship will not be ready for the Australian Grand Prix, so the champion team will only go to Melbourne with an adaptation of the W13 to the characteristics of the Albert Park layout.
The problems to be solved in the ground effect car of Mark Elliot and James Allison are deeper than it seems and, therefore, more difficult to solve than expected. Just remember the team’s arrogance at the W13 “track launch” with sidepods reduced to maximum before the Bahrain test, followed by the team’s bewilderment at realizing that the one-second margin not only didn’t exist , but the Silver Arrows were unable to keep up with Ferrari and Red Bull.
A fall from Olympus that hurts a lot, because in Brackley they are not used to following the rest after eight years of dominance. The chase isn’t easy, but everyone in the paddock takes it for granted that Toto Wolff ‘s team will be back soon, and they are second in the constructors’ championship by a point from Red Bull.
But what are the real design problems of the W13? Toto Wolff himself has highlighted that they cannot attribute it to a single aspect, but there are several areas in which they must improve in the single-seater.
And what are they?
Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes W13. Here you can see the high ground clearance
Lewis Hamilton described the car as undrivable, because the seven-time world champion is trying by all means to find a line of development, while the newcomer, George Russell, after three courses of experience with Williams, has become accustomed to take advantage of everything you have at your disposal, sometimes going beyond the limit. It’s like watching Ivan Capelli and Jean Alesi in 1992 battling it out in 1992 with the disastrous Ferrari F92A , a single-seater car with a double bottom.
Lewis Hamilton with a heavily loaded wing at the Bahrain GP in the Mercedes W13
The main flaw of the W13 is the resistance. The car has an aerodynamic lock that makes it slow on the straights and inefficient in the medium and fast corners, already in Sakhir they fitted a very loaded rear wing to compensate for the lack of load generated on the ground.
The negative effect of porpoising, the annoying bounce on the straights at high speeds due to the presence of the Venturi tunnels, forced the engineers to raise the minimum ground clearance, losing the sealing of the bottom to the asphalt and, therefore, a lot of load aerodynamics, which Shovlin and his engineers tried to compensate for with more wings.
Comparison between the rear wing in Sakhir and the one that was downloaded in Saudi Arabia from the Mercedes W13
The “wall” therefore became larger than expected, increasing drag and producing top speeds that were unsuitable for a car that has always had the most powerful power unit. In Saudi Arabia, the rear wing was drastically shortened (the Mercedes was the most unloaded), but this has not changed substantially.
Detail of the rear wing of the Mercedes W13 at the Saudi Arabian GP
This is a sign that the problem is not related to the ailerons. The bottom generates up to 60% of the load, while the top part accounts for 10%, and the rest is shared between the wings. It is clear that the 15% produced by the rear wing cannot have such a decisive impact on the result, which means that there is a lack of efficiency in the underbody and bodywork.
The investigations point to the lack of power in the engine, and that is that Wolff has spoken of about two tenths of a disadvantage compared to rivals, an unusual scenario for Mercedes.
Mercedes F1 M13 E Performance power unit detail
No one is unaware that all single-seaters powered by the F1 M13 E Performance engine are in serious trouble, and that the only element that unites them is the power unit. It has been reported that Petronas would not have recovered the loss with the introduction of the new E10 fuel, but Motorsport.com has learned that suppliers have closed the gap, as has Ferrari , while Red Bull Powertrains (Honda) suffers the most. .
The Aston Martin AMR22 and McLaren MCL36 are very different from the Williams FW44, which may be more like the Mercedes, but they are still very weak as 2022 begins.
Williams FW44 Radiators
When we speak of “similarities” we refer to the position of the radiators in the single-seater, since both cars have hollowed out the chassis to “fit” part of these parts in an area of the bodywork. It seems that the design is defined, and that it is not easy to modify it, so not even a major turn of the screw would turn the tables in Barcelona and solve the problems.
The arrow shows the cutout in the chassis in which the radiators of the Mercedes W13 are included
Is that where the Mercedes W13’s aerodynamic blockage comes from or will it be fixed by reducing the porpoising that prevents the Silver Arrows from following Red Bull and Ferrari? In Brackley they have embarked on a complicated exercise that may have created problems in extracting heat from the engine and, therefore, generating overheating .
This increase in temperature makes it reduce the potential, and therefore they could not put the most aggressive maps. At Mercedes they prefer to say that there is no point in seeking maximum power, but rather that it is better to offer Hamilton a versatile engine today, extending its life, since it will be very difficult to complete a year of 23 races with only three engines.
In Melbourne there will be the wing designed for this appointment that returns to the calendar, and in Imola the new background is expected, but are we sure that the updates will be enough to change the direction of the team?
Mercedes W13 pull-rod rear suspension detail
There are those who talk about updating the suspensions and who do not want to neglect the issue of weight, since the W13 needs a weight loss diet of several kilos to reach the minimum 798 that the FIA has imposed.
If it is true that each kilo means an expense of about 250,000 euros, how much should Mercedes spend to straighten out a season that has started off crooked?
The fierce controversy over the wing that supports the mirrors with the controversial micro-flaps that act as supports seems to have been far away after seeing all this.
