The Mercedes team will be modifying their car with a tough hand for the GP needs of next weekend.
Too big a rear wing sucked Mersu’s speed in the first two races. AOP
Mercedes is badly at the feet of Ferrari and Red Bull.
It is already clear that exceptionally large mistakes have been made in the design of the F1 car, and there is no more time to waste for the team management.
The speed improvement should preferably take place immediately.
The official species Formula1.com according to Friday, Melbourne will see an already completely refurbished rear wing and an even more powerful base plate. In practice, there is a wing with a clearly lower air resistance than in the first two races.
The direction is surprising because, in principle, a much larger aerodynamic downforce is needed on the Albert Park park track than in the Saudi race two weeks ago.
So a lot is left on the base plate to suck the Silver Arrow onto the asphalt.
Interim solution
However, this is an emergency solution that does not eliminate the real root cause. Mercedes couldn’t properly anticipate the bouncing that is inherent in ground effect cars, and now it has to squat forward in a badly crippled car.
The problem lies in the fact that the car’s driving height has had to be raised to reduce bounce. At the same time, however, the air flow directed to the base plate has been significantly reduced and the required grip is no longer generated.
In the available wind tunnels, the simulated speed corresponds to a speed of 180 km / h. Indeed, it was not until the first tests in Barcelona that Mercedes realized that the car would start to bounce violently as it approached top speeds of about 300 kilometers.
Since then, a race has been held against the clock at the headquarters in Brackel to solve the problem. Ferrari and Red Bull were much better at carting the features of ground effect cars, and now they are only able to develop their cars in terms of speed.
Mersu must first get his bounce under control and only then move on to fight for pole positions and GP victories.
With a smaller rear wing, the car’s air resistance is reduced and the direct speed is increased. In this way, the air flow directed to the base plate also increases.
Mercedes, of course, hopes it will bring the stable closer to the top. However, the difference is too great for even these changes to struggle to win the Australian race.