The upgrades Mercedes could bring to Imola to save their F1 season
A critical weekend for Mercedes
The 2023 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix could be the most important weekend in Mercedes’ future - in the short term, but also for next year.
Since the season kicked off in early March at the Bahrain International Circuit, Mercedes have been consistent in their message of Imola being the turning point in their season.
While expectations have been reigned in by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in recent weeks, Mercedes are pinning their hopes on a substantial upgrade package for the race at Imola.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff hopes the upgrade can cure why the Mercedes W14 is so “poisonous” to drive.
“I think we are chasing downforce and we're trying to do the best possible job in terms of the mechanical platform,” Wolff said.
“What we're doing is we're introducing a new bodywork, and we're introducing a new floor and we're doing a new front suspension and that's pretty large. That's a pretty large operation. Large surgery. It’s going to be a lot of learning in the virtual world, where it is good lap time.
“That's why the upgrade that we're bringing is going to help us to set the direction, and to understand the various areas that we believe could play a role in why the car is so poisonous to drive."
From everything Wolff and some of Mercedes’ key staff have said in recent weeks, we have a clear indication about what parts specifically they are likely to bring to Imola.
No doubt, had it not been for the cost cap, Mercedes would have developed an entirely new ‘b-spec’ car for this weekend, but given the financial restrictions they simply can't.
One key area that Mercedes have focused on with their development is the front suspension.
The suspension is one area Red Bull have excelled in with their RB19.
Red Bull’s suspension design is focused around ‘anti-dive’ under braking and ‘squat’ during acceleration, which allows the car to run closer to the ground.
The closer a car can run to the ground, the more downforce it has, gaining more lap time as a result.
Consequently, Red Bull are allowed to run less rear wing meaning there’s less drag and thus more straight-line speed.
So it’s no surprise Mercedes are focusing on the floor and their front suspension given Red Bull’s incredible start to the year.
Mercedes are still the only team to be running their own, unique sidepod design.
With Red Bull enjoying such a sizable advantage over the rest, it’s another area that
Mercedes will likely change at Imola or in the coming races as teams converge towards the reigning world champion’s concept.
Friday at Imola is going to be a fascinating weekend with a number of teams bringing big upgrades to turn their seasons around.
Besides their own respective competitiveness, let’s hope they work for the good of the sport in 2023.
A true test of Perez’s mettle
Sergio Perez would have been wounded after he was beaten by Max Verstappen at the Miami Grand Prix.
It was an important reminder to anyone who thinks Perez is a credible title contender that he still needs to make another step to contend with Verstappen.
All of Perez’s wins for Red Bull have been at street circuits - Azerbaijan twice, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.
As pointed out by his own team boss after April’s race in Baku “he just needs to do it at a normal track now”.
“So he’s excelled at street circuits,” Horner said. “All his victories for us have been at street tracks. Second time he’s won here, won in Singapore, won in Monaco, won in Jeddah.
“Just need to get him going at the proper circuits, too.”
With F1 returning to Europe, there’s a number of “normal circuits” coming up with Imola and Spain.
However, the good news for Perez is that Monaco takes place at the end of this month.
Can de Vries avoid a ‘red card’?
Since the race in Miami, the pressure has ramped up on Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri.
There has been a raft of speculation about his future with the team, linking the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson with his seat.
De Vries has struggled considerably in the opening five races of F1 2023 as he has been comprehensively out-performed by teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko has said he’s issued de Vries a ‘yellow card’ - making reference to football where a player is awarded a yellow card following a foul.
A second yellow card results in a red and their removal from the game.
It seems that de Vries is on borrowed time and quickly needs to turn his season around in F1’s triple-header.
New qualifying format for Imola
As confirmed by F1 tyre Pirelli, there will be a slightly different qualifying format in play this weekend.
For Q1, drivers will only be allowed to run on the white-marked hard tyre, for Q2 it will be the yellow-marked medium, while in Q3, drivers are only allowed to use the soft.
This is being trialled at two events this season to cut down on the number of tyres brought to a race weekend.
It reduces the total allocation for each car from 13 sets to 11 per weekend.
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