Mercedes, the German carmaker, has had a tough start to the 2024 Formula 1 season. Their new car, the W15, has shown potential but also some problems. This has made it hard for their drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, in some races.
One big issue Mercedes is facing is why their car isn’t performing well in fast corners. They’ve been trying to figure out why there’s a difference between the downforce their wind tunnel and computer simulations predict and what they actually see on the track.
After looking into it more, they found something surprising. It turns out that the downforce is there, just as their simulations said it would be. But it’s not helping the car go faster than they expected.
Toto Wolff, the boss of Mercedes, explained that they measured the downforce using sensors and found they had more than before. But this extra downforce wasn’t making the car faster. Wolff said, “It doesn’t make any sense.”
This discovery has left Mercedes puzzled. They thought they understood their car better, but now they realize there’s more to it. Wolff admitted that they’ve been struggling to make sense of it all.
One thing they’re considering is how their car’s mechanics are working with its aerodynamics. They believe that to get the most out of the car, they need to make sure these two aspects are working together better.
Mercedes knows that teams like Red Bull have been successful not just because of their aerodynamics but also because of their car’s ride quality. This means how smoothly the car moves over bumps and corners.
Wolff thinks that by improving how the mechanical parts of their car work with the aerodynamics, they can unlock more performance. He said, “These two need to correlate,” meaning they need to work together better.
In the end, Mercedes is trying new approaches to solve their car’s problems. They know they need to make changes to get back to the top.
