Mercedes has outlined its development plans for the W14 across the Easter period in a bid to make its car “more driveable”.
Despite the lengthy three-and-a-half-week break between the Australian and Azerbaijan Grands Prix, there is no rest for the F1 teams, unlike during August when they are forced to shut down.
The original F1 calendar had the Chinese Grand Prix scheduled for mid-April but its cancellation due to ongoing Covid concerns has afforded the teams an opportunity to add performance to their cars ahead of the sport’s return on April 28-30 in Baku.
Mercedes, in particular, now feels it has started to make gains with the W14 following a poor start to the season in Bahrain where team principal Toto Wolff was set to almost write off the season after qualifying.
“The Easter break is a working period like any other,” said chief technical officer James Allison.
“What will we be doing? Well, we are working as hard as we can in the wind tunnel to find more downforce, and we will be working as hard as we can in the drawing office to convert the things the wind tunnel found a few weeks ago into performance that we deliver to the track.
“We will also be working in the drawing office to bring some mechanical parts to the car, some different suspension components that we think will help the underlying balance of the car and make it a more driveable thing, making it something that the drivers have more confidence to push right to the limits.
“And we will be working on the normal sort of simulation loop and routine that allow us to prepare for the race weekends that are coming up, making sure that we land the car in the right place when we get to the race, and that will be a big deal in Baku.”
Azerbaijan set-up needs to be “on the money” – Mercedes
That will be particularly prevalent for the problems posed by the Azerbaijan GP street circuit where the first of this year’s six sprint races take place.
There are also plans in place for an extra qualifying session that will set the grid for the sprint, with Friday’s qualifying sorting the line-up for the grand prix.
That would leave only one practice session on Friday ahead of that day’s qualifying.
Allison added: “Sprint races really reward the teams that can land there with a starting set-up that is pretty on the money and ready to go in qualifying because the time is really compressed in a sprint race weekend.
“Those are the things we will be working on and hopefully, we work well and strong and have a good showing when we show up in Baku in just a few weeks’ time.”
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