Mercedes were “too cautious” in performance v bouncing trade-off
Porpoising hampered Mercedes’ 2022 campaign and reappeared at the Belgian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell both complaining about significant bouncing at Spa-Francorchamps.
Tweaks were made to the 2023 regulations in order to reduce bouncing, including raising the floor edges and diffuser throat. Largely, the problem has been eradicated this year.
Mercedes technical director James Allison has admitted the team were overly cautious in their bid to correct the severe bouncing they suffered in 2022 when developing the W14.
"Although we made great strides last year, 2023 presented all the teams with a rule change that offered some protection against bouncing,” Allison explained in a Mercedes Q&A.
“Over the winter we faced a choice. Go aggressive and trade the bouncing protection in the rule change for performance, or take a more cautions route and steer clear of the sort of porpoising that wrecked our season last year.
“We chose the cautious path, knowing that it would be less painful to correct if we were wrong. The story of our year so far has been mostly about finding out that we had been too cautious and making the changes to correct that.”
Nevertheless, Allison said Mercedes have still been able to add more downforce to their 2023 challenger.
"Simply putting downforce on the car in the medium to high-speed area of the aero map,” he said of Mercedes’ biggest gains.
"That downforce is found closer to the ground than we had developed the car in the first instance.”
As well as making further downforce gains, Mercedes are targeting handling and balance improvements.
"Bread and butter downforce is always a good thing. We are also trying to make the car more reassuring for the drivers when they initially turn in,” Allison said.
“It feels too reactive. And then when they get to the apex they have the opposite problem, where we want it to bite at the front and it doesn't.
“It's unstable when you first turn the wheel and then annoyingly dead when they get to the apex. We want it the other way around. That's what we are working on."
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