Toto Wolff claims Mercedes is now making considerable steps with its W14 as it plucks the “low-hanging fruit” that is giving him cause for optimism for the remainder of the F1 season.
It has emerged that Mercedes was aware even before testing in Bahrain that it needed to revise its current concept as the gains it had hoped to see in the wind tunnel were not materialising.
Once it emerged in testing in Bahrain, and especially after qualifying that the car was no match for Red Bull, in particular, the team set about looking into all areas in which it could improve.
Talk has naturally centred on the ‘zeropod’ design that raised eyebrows when it was unveiled at the start of last season, and again when the W14 was revealed in February in that Mercedes had opted to persist with such an aerodynamic philosophy.
But Wolff has confirmed there is so much more being reviewed.
“It is all of the visible aerodynamic surfaces, from the leading edge all the way to the diffuser and the beam wing,” said Wolff.
“There’s massive amounts (to be gained) on the floor, obviously, with a ground-effect car.
“Then there are many more architectural things that are necessary in order to give you the bodywork you think is most efficient.
“So literally the car is being turned upside down at the moment and there’s a lot of goodness we are seeing.”
Mercedes took “two steps forward”
To such an extent, Wolff states “big steps” are being made “in relative performance”.
In the opening two grands prix in Bahrain and Saudi Bahrain, Mercedes has found itself behind both Red Bull and Aston Martin in terms of both one-lap and race pace.
In comparison to Ferrari, the Scuderia had the edge in Bahrain, whilst Mercedes clearly had the advantage at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
As to what is now achievable this season, Wolff added: “The kind of gains that are coming in our R&D and aero are much bigger than we’ve had over a long time.
“We’ve unlocked some potential because we are simply looking at things from a different angle now. We have a different perspective because of our learnings from the Bahrain test and race.
“So there was no step back. On the contrary, there were immediately two steps forward.”
Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has confirmed the team has “a lot of projects at the moment trying to bring performance over the next five races”.
The suggestion is Mercedes’ improvement might not be immediately visible until it has brought all the different elements required to its car.
“The biggest change we’ve made is actually looking at where we want to have the car set up in its sweet spot,” said Wolff.
“We were too low last year, we’re too high this year. But now we believe we know where to land it.
“On the other side, obviously then everything else follows in terms of floor and bodywork that you want to achieve.
“I don’t want to sound foolishly optimistic, but at least we are seeing low-hanging fruit with things that are encouraging.”
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