Moving away from its 'zero-pod' concept and copying a Red Bull/Ferrari style sidepod design was never on the cards for Mercedes in 2022, says Andrew Shovlin ⬇️ F1
The German car manufacturer went completely its own route for 2022, adopting a ‘zero sidepod’ solution on the W13, which was very different to the downwash Red Bull idea and the inwash Ferrari concept.
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said that the team never felt that it needed to focus too much effort on the sidepod solution as it was not triggering a big performance deficit. “The sidepod concept was something that we had to commit to anyway for the year realistically. But if we'd been more focused on just trying to find a quick fix, we may have been copying and rolling it out and seeing what it does.
Red Bull’s sidepod design was not the only thing that grabbed attention this year, because it was the team’s low-drag concept – which helped deliver impressive top speed – that gave it a big advantage over the course of the campaign. “Their car looks like it has less drag if we put the same wings on it. In the earlier part of the year, we were having to run very high [downforce levels], which was certainly not helping from that point of view.
Mercedes managed to address most of its porpoising problems over the course of the campaign, but still encountered a few issues later in the season.
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