At Mercedes, the knot in the 2023 Formula 1 season just doesn’t really want to burst, despite several updates and concept changes. After the Mercedes customer Aston Martin initially had the upper hand with Fernando Alonso at the beginning of the season, McLaren now seems to have managed to jump past the factory team with a major update.
While the Silver Arrows regularly seem to be the third force throughout the season and, with the exception of Barcelona and Australia, are beaten by Aston Martin, Ferrari and now McLaren depending on the track, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff remains calm, especially when it comes to performance that concerns Mercedes customers.
“No, that makes us very proud because the track [in Silverstone] is very power sensitive and the Mercedes engines were really good,” he said of the recent defeat by McLaren at the British Grand Prix.
“It’s exciting to see McLaren come up with upgrades within a season that completely change the way the car performs, and we’re not talking two tenths up or down, we’re talking a second and that’s good for the sport “When you do the right things, when you put one and one together, we’ve seen that with Aston Martin from 2022 to 2023, we’ve seen that with McLaren throughout the year now and I like that.”
Why can’t Mercedes make such a leap?
Of course, the question arises as to whether the factory team can still take such a big step during the season, although the big update already came in Monaco. “I think we’re constrained by the cost cap,” Wolff replies. “And because McLaren [Anfang 2022] With relatively little time available for wind tunnel and CFD testing, they ended up lower in the championship.”
“In the middle of the year they were fifth or sixth. So they’ve had more time in the wind tunnel. And that’s why it’s so difficult. Do I think we have upgrades that will fundamentally change the car? I don’t think so. But we have a few small steps to come.”
“And you can see that when you find that tenth or two or three, you take a different position on the grid. And I think if we had started further up and not been stuck behind Leclerc, who knows where we would be would have been on the medium. But yeah, I think we can make that move.”
Wolff: Wind tunnel time shouldn’t be an excuse
“I don’t want to say that the reasons for the performances are solely due to the longer wind tunnel time. I think it’s just good technique, good decisions that are on the right track. We have to wait and see if they can repeat that performance in Budapest . But it’s always about marginal gains.”
“If you have 20 percent more time in the wind tunnel and we gain two seconds over a year, that’s four tenths. So if you have that four or five tenths of extra power, that’s always helpful. But you still have to have the right innovation, design it well, put it on the car and align it with the wind tunnel and the simulation. Chapeau.”
Should Mercedes have copied more precisely?
What is striking, however, is that both Aston Martin and McLaren have followed much more in Red Bull’s direction in development, while Mercedes has converged on the basic concept, but by no means to the same extent as its customer teams.
“The side boxes of the body are only part of the chassis and it clearly looks like there are interesting solutions that open up as a result,” explains the Austrian. “But most of the power comes from the underbody and the diffuser. And we haven’t seen how they interpreted the regulations and how they implemented it.”
“In my opinion it’s just the fact that the strong cars look a bit the same from the side and from above. And that certainly got stuck in our minds even back then. But maybe that’s just another indication of where we’re going .”
Red Bull copy with high downforce loss in the wind tunnel
The Austrian also reveals that an early attempt at a Red Bull design in the wind tunnel didn’t show any benefit – and it made the car even worse. However, he thinks the way McLaren has so blatantly exploited the idea could prompt some rethinking and spark another attempt.
“We had the sidepod concept and the chassis [von Red Bull] very early on in the wind tunnel to see what possibilities you can open up and how much it would add to the performance,” he says.
“And the relative loss of downforce as we measure it was significant. So that’s not something we wanted to pursue earlier in the year. Are we going to change our design direction? I think we have a great group of aerodynamicists, James’s [Allison] and I’m sure it will be a consideration when you see what step they take [McLaren] have made.”
Russell concerned: McLaren now faster for the second time
Mercedes driver George Russell also believes that McLaren can now fight for the top spots for the rest of the season: “I see no reason why they shouldn’t stay up there now,” said the Brit.
“We came from the Red Bull Ring, which is a very different track to Silverstone. And they were a little step ahead of us on both occasions, so I don’t know how they can put out that much effort, that was quite surprising.”
“We don’t tend to focus too much on our competitors. We just have to focus on ourselves. But it inspires us that it can be possible, but we have to try to do better and go faster.”
Hamilton praises Formula 1: That’s exactly how it should be!
“100 percent and even the week before [in Spielberg]”, replies team-mate Lewis Hamilton when asked if McLaren had the better car than Mercedes. “But this is the first time in a long time and they deserve what they have done and we have to do a better job.”
“I would say this is one of the most exciting times we’ve seen in the sport as we finally see the rules bring people closer together.”
“You’ve seen the Williams were level with the Albon. You’ve seen the McLarens now and the Astons, so we’ve got a lot of teams that are very, very close: small gaps in qualifying, which is exactly what we need, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the year unfolds.”