Photo: LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Mercedes was the talk of the paddock during last weekend’s British Grand Prix, thanks to a series of new upgrades introduced on the W13 race car. The German outfit were hoping to build on the progress they made in Spain.
While they didn’t exactly dominate the field, Mercedes looked strong at Silverstone, with Lewis Hamilton finishing P3 after overtaking Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the later stages of the race.
According to Mercedes trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, the team can finally focus on extracting maximum performance out of the W13, rather than fixing their porpoising issues, reports Motorsport.
“In the first few races, we were literally just sort of fighting to survive. And the drivers were fighting to survive with a car that was incredibly difficult to work with. But we did a decent job of scoring points, actually, and picking up on the opportunities when others were unreliable.”
When asked whether he considers the team to have a new concept since launch, Shovlin said the following: “I think yeah, we changed concept in Barcelona perhaps in terms of the way the car was working, to try and solve some of that bouncing.”
“And whilst our issues with bouncing, quite rightly, generated a lot of interest in the early races, because we were at the worst end of the pack, if you look at us here [at Silverstone], I think we're actually near the better end of it.”
He went on to point to another issue for the W13, which is stiffness. The car still runs too low and with too stiff a suspension setting, which can be a problem on tracks that aren’t very smooth – most tracks.
“It does look like we are running low, and that is one of the things that we’d like to develop. But we’re making progress in that direction.”
According to Mercedes trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, the team can finally focus on extracting maximum performance out of the W13, rather than fixing their porpoising issues, reports Motorsport.
“In the first few races, we were literally just sort of fighting to survive. And the drivers were fighting to survive with a car that was incredibly difficult to work with. But we did a decent job of scoring points, actually, and picking up on the opportunities when others were unreliable.”
When asked whether he considers the team to have a new concept since launch, Shovlin said the following: “I think yeah, we changed concept in Barcelona perhaps in terms of the way the car was working, to try and solve some of that bouncing.”
“And whilst our issues with bouncing, quite rightly, generated a lot of interest in the early races, because we were at the worst end of the pack, if you look at us here [at Silverstone], I think we're actually near the better end of it.”
He went on to point to another issue for the W13, which is stiffness. The car still runs too low and with too stiff a suspension setting, which can be a problem on tracks that aren’t very smooth – most tracks.
“It does look like we are running low, and that is one of the things that we’d like to develop. But we’re making progress in that direction.”
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