Photo: LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
As it turns out, there is such a thing as being too smart for your own good and Mercedes-AMG F1 Team are inadvertently hard at work demonstrating this concept. The reigning champions must now decide whether their innovative Zero-Pod design is a complete dud going forward.
While their main issue is porpoising, come Spain, the German outfit will get a golden opportunity to compare its current Zero-Pod setup to the more conventional sidepod design they initially tested in Barcelona. What’s certain is that a call must be made soon whether to continue this way or do something different.
When asked by Motorsport if Mercedes could go back to launch spec after the Spanish Grand Prix, team principal Toto Wolff acknowledged the possibility.
“Well, I wouldn’t discount anything, but we need to give all our people benefit of the doubt. They have produced great race cars in the past and we believe that this is the route to go. Barcelona is definitely going to be a point in time where we are able to correlate with what we saw in February and gather more data.”
In theory, this Zero-Pod design should produce less downforce, however, it’s possible that the concept may have also led to some unintended consequences, such as exposing more of the floor, which in turn makes the car more sensitive to porpoising.
“If you walk through the grid, you can see that our floor edges stick out much wider than anybody else’s. That gives it a different way, or much more scope, of possible instability.”
“I think that’s where our concept varies. Clearly the Barcelona launch car is much slower on paper, but we need to find out how we can make the current car work predictably for the drivers.”
Still, Wolff insists that his team remains committed to the current concept and that their main goal is to first and foremost, understand what’s been going wrong, before going in another direction.
What’s interesting is that Haas reportedly already tried out Mercedes’ Zero-Pod design last year when they were developing their 2022 car, and while the new design did give the car an advantage in slow corners, in the end, they saw more potential in having conventional wide sidepods.
When asked by Motorsport if Mercedes could go back to launch spec after the Spanish Grand Prix, team principal Toto Wolff acknowledged the possibility.
“Well, I wouldn’t discount anything, but we need to give all our people benefit of the doubt. They have produced great race cars in the past and we believe that this is the route to go. Barcelona is definitely going to be a point in time where we are able to correlate with what we saw in February and gather more data.”
In theory, this Zero-Pod design should produce less downforce, however, it’s possible that the concept may have also led to some unintended consequences, such as exposing more of the floor, which in turn makes the car more sensitive to porpoising.
“If you walk through the grid, you can see that our floor edges stick out much wider than anybody else’s. That gives it a different way, or much more scope, of possible instability.”
“I think that’s where our concept varies. Clearly the Barcelona launch car is much slower on paper, but we need to find out how we can make the current car work predictably for the drivers.”
Still, Wolff insists that his team remains committed to the current concept and that their main goal is to first and foremost, understand what’s been going wrong, before going in another direction.
What’s interesting is that Haas reportedly already tried out Mercedes’ Zero-Pod design last year when they were developing their 2022 car, and while the new design did give the car an advantage in slow corners, in the end, they saw more potential in having conventional wide sidepods.
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