{"id":999880,"date":"2022-04-28T12:51:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T11:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/?p=999880"},"modified":"2022-04-28T12:51:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T11:51:43","slug":"mercedes-aiming-for-miami-gp-upgrades-to-save-2022-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/articles\/single-seaters\/f1\/mercedes-aiming-for-miami-gp-upgrades-to-save-2022-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes aiming for Miami GP upgrades to save 2022 season"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"c-content-block content-block content-section\">\n    <div class=\"container user-content\">\n        <p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/database\/teams\/mercedes-benz\">Mercedes<\/a> is hoping aerodynamic upgrades it brings to the next two race weekends will solve the team&#8217;s issues that have relegated it down into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/f1\">Formula 1&#8217;s<\/a> midfield.<\/p>\n<p>So far this year, the team has scored a best result of third place with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/database\/drivers\/lewis-hamilton\">Lewis Hamilton<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/database\/drivers\/george-russell\">George Russell<\/a> at the Bahrain and Australian Grands Prix respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Following the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/database\/circuits\/imola\">Imola<\/a>, team principal Toto Wolff apologised to Hamilton after the race for an &#8220;undriveable&#8221; car.<\/p>\n<p>While rivals Red Bull continue to bring regular upgrades and championship leaders Ferrari expected to bring its first major upgrade of the season to Miami, Mercedes has admitted it is unlikely a single quick fix will work.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Realistically, we think this will be something we approach in steps rather than one big moment where the whole thing vanishes,&#8221; Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained in the team&#8217;s post-race review.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But we are seeing encouraging signs and as I said, we&#8217;re hoping to bring parts for the car soon, maybe even Miami, where we can hopefully see progress on this issue.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n<section class=\"c-content-article content-article content-section\">\n    <div class=\"container\">\n        <div class=\"content-article__grid\">\n            <div class=\"content-article__article\">\n                <h2 class=\"title sanomat\">Related article<\/h2>\n                                                        \n\t\n<article class=\"article-item \">\n\t\n\t\t\t<a class=\"article-item__cover-link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/articles\/single-seaters\/f1\/time-for-mercedes-to-press-the-reset-button-and-focus-on-2023\/\"><\/a>\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"article-item__image article-item__image--cropped\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" height=\"185\" width=\"329\" alt=\"Time for Mercedes to press the reset button and focus on 2023?\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Wolff_Imola22-329x185.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Wolff_Imola22-329x185.jpg 329w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Wolff_Imola22-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Wolff_Imola22-330x186.jpg 330w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Wolff_Imola22-165x93.jpg 165w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Wolff_Imola22-82x46.jpg 82w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Wolff_Imola22-172x97.jpg 172w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Wolff_Imola22-200x113.jpg 200w\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"article-item__content\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"article-item__row proxima\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"article-item__tag tag tag--group\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>F1<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-item__title article-item__title--cropped sanomat\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"article-item__title-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/articles\/single-seaters\/f1\/time-for-mercedes-to-press-the-reset-button-and-focus-on-2023\/\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTime for Mercedes to press the reset button and focus on 2023?\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"article-item__excerpt\">\n\t\t\t\t<p>Mercedes is facing some tough decisions to save its position as one of F1&#8217;s sharks. Andrew Frankel runs through the options facing it<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"article-item__meta proxima\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"article-item__date\" datetime=\"2022-04-27\">27th April 2022<\/time>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"article-item__author\">By\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAndrew Frankel<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n<\/article>\n                            <\/div>\n            <div class=\"content-article__content user-content\">\n                <p>Wolff and Hamilton were caught having a heated discussion on the Friday after the team&#8217;s double elimination from Q2 inside the Mercedes garage.<\/p>\n<p>Russell was the best-placed Mercedes driver in P11 while Hamilton ended up a distant 13th having struggled to match his team-mate across the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Following Imola, the team says it is still hopeful that it can get to the bottom of its troubles and find a fix for the porpoising issue that has blighted the team so far in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The reality is we can&#8217;t run the car where we designed it to be run, we&#8217;re having to run higher ride heights. And by running higher ride heights, it&#8217;s got less performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"pull-quote-right\">&#8220;We can\u2019t sustain this level of these results if we don\u2019t improve the pace of the car&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now, that might be true for almost every car on the grid. Lots of people are suffering with this problem. And we know that lifting the car is a way of alleviating it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of the work that&#8217;s been going on in Brackley has been to understand the phenomenon and whether we can actually control it and whether we can engineer it out of the car. And when Toto talks about finding the key what he&#8217;s really talking about is is there an aerodynamic solution that we can apply to the car that will make this problem go away?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mercedes has so far been forced to run its W13 with a higher ride height than it was designed to run at. By doing so, it has lost a great deal of aerodynamic performance in order to limit the porpoising effect.<\/p>\n<p>Russell was very critical of the situation, saying that he was suffering from back and chest pain as a result of the violent bouncing down the straights.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" height=\"450\" width=\"800\" alt=\"George Russell, 2022 Imola gp\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-800x450.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-400x225.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-660x371.jpg 660w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-330x186.jpg 330w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-165x93.jpg 165w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-82x46.jpg 82w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-658x370.jpg 658w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-329x185.jpg 329w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-172x97.jpg 172w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-200x113.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/GRIMOLA22-600x338.jpg 600w\" \/>\n                <figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n                            <p class=\"wp-caption-image-text\">So far Mercedes&#8217; radical skinny sidepod design hasn&#8217;t brought performance gains<\/p>\n                                        <p class=\"wp-caption-description\">\n                    Clive Mason\/Getty Images\n                <\/p>\n                    <\/figcaption>\n    <\/figure>\n<p>While he managed to end the race in fourth position, Russell voiced his concerns over the safety of drivers for the remainder of the season if the problem persisted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The bouncing, it really takes your breath away. It\u2019s the most extreme I\u2019ve ever felt it,\u201d Russell said post-race.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I really hope we find a solution and I hope every team struggling with the bouncing finds a solution, because it\u2019s not sustainable for the drivers to continue. This is the first weekend I\u2019ve truly been struggling with my back, and almost like chest pains from the severity of the bouncing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As I said before this weekend, we can\u2019t sustain this level of these results if we don\u2019t improve the pace of the car.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The reigning world champion finds itself mired in the midfield by the porpoisnig phenomenon while rivals in Red Bull and Ferrari are set to fight for the title, and already enjoy a sizeable advantage in the constructors&#8217; standings.<\/p>\n<p>For Hamilton and Russell, they&#8217;ve experienced differing fortunes with the new arrival largely overshadowing his seven-times champion team-mate, but neither is looking set to fight for wins in the short-to-medium term future.<\/p>\n<p>So how does it turn it around?<\/p>\n<p>Development of the &#8216;no sidepod&#8217; concept has been paused as the team strives to get on top of the bouncing issues, but a new package is set to arrive in Miami or Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>Whether or not those upgrades produce desirable results could determine whether Mercedes continues to develop its &#8217;22 car, or give up on the season and switch focus to next year.<\/p>\n\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Time is running out for Mercedes to find a fix for the porpoising issue that has cost it car performance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":770,"featured_media":999993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118712],"tags":[124317,34092,343,129746],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/770"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=999880"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1000049,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999880\/revisions\/1000049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/999993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=999880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=999880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=999880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}