Azerbaijan GP 2022: Mercedes concerned with car driveability

Azerbaijan GP 2022: Mercedes concerned with car driveability

Mercedes W-13

Mercedes had a fantastic weekend in Spain. The porpoising seemed to be drastically reduced, and they overall had a better pace, even if they were considerably behind the frontrunners (George Russell was around 6-7 tenths behind Charles Leclerc during the qualifying session). However, it was truly in the race where they came alive.

Russell ran in second place for a considerable amount of time before being overtaken by a Verstappen who had finally recovered from his DRS issues. Hamilton, on the other hand, had a very strong recovery drive. After being relegated to 19th place from a first-lap collision with Kevin Magnussen, eventually climbed up to fifth place. Unfortunately, both drivers suffered from cooling issues during the final few laps of the race, and Hamilton had to concede a place to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

After the race, both George Russell and Toto Wolff had tempered expectations for the following races. This was perhaps wise, as the Mercedes really did not look good in Monaco. The car suffered from a lot of bouncing, and their pace was also not as strong. Both drivers were able to finish in the points, but the weekend would send an entirely different feeling to fans and the team as compared to the highs of Spain.

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The W13’s inherent stiffness is posing problems for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes W13
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in action during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Earlier it seemed that Mercedes would make quick progress in improving and developing the car on the back of their strong weekend in Barcelona, but Monaco has put that into contention. Writing on The Race, Scott Mitchell said that Mercedes were left disappointed after Monaco.

“Its ride quality is still poor, which seems to be a legacy of the car’s inherent stiffness.”

“Even though this problem wasn’t a total surprise to Mercedes in Monaco, as it knew its car still had inherent weaknesses, the extent of the issue was worse than expected.”

Because Mercedes’ focus was on solving porpoising – which is a distinct issue from the ride quality, they did not make much progress in improving the ride quality of the W13.

“In simple terms, Mercedes now needs to create a better mechanical and aerodynamic platform.”

Mitchell feels that aside from addressing the porpoising, Mercedes has not developed the car to the extent of their rivals. So even on good weekends, they are far behind the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari. The podiums they have scored have also partly been due to circumstance.

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