The Reasons Why It Takes So Long for Mercedes To Fix Its Nightmare 2022 Season

At the start of the season, Mercedes was confident that once it had the porpoising under control, the W13 had the potential to set the pace. Unfortunately, the theoretical performance produced in simulations has proved a lot slower.

For the 2022 Miami Grand Prix, Mercedes-AMG Petronas introduced its most significant upgrade package since the start of the season. While the team has had some podiums and top-five finishes since Miami, it still isn't enough to put it anywhere near Red Bull and Ferrari on genuine pace. But the question is, why is it taking Mercedes so long to deal with the porpoising problems when almost all the rivals have done so?

In the last two to three races, the German outfit seemed genuinely fast during the Friday practice sessions. For example, in Miami, George Russell topped the sheets in FP2, while the best result until Miami had been P4. From what we see, Mercedes performs better on tracks with slow corners and short straights, while on long straights like the Baku main one, the W13 bounced like crazy.

Basically, to understand the problem better, when the grip is increasing, all the other cars are getting faster while Mercedes is getting slower. Why? Well, more speed means some aspects of the underfloor begin to stall and setsoff the repeating loss and recovery of downforce that creates the bouncing effect.

On Sundays, the porpoising problems were not as bad for Mercedes, so when it matters the most, they usually come home as the best of the rest on race day. Still, for a team that has dominated Formula One for eight consecutive years, being the best of the rest is not something to be proud of.

However, Mercedes remains adamant that the performance potential of the W13 is real, but right now, it still can't run the car at the ride height it wants because of the need to contain the porpoising effect. Plus, the team is still in a learning phase where they need to understand precisely why the car experience porpoising at a much lower speed when compared to its rivals.

At the same time, the Silver Arrows "zero side pod concept" works superbly in simulation. The team is unwilling to abandon this design in favor of something more conventional and accessible to make it work. All this information means that the German team is in an "all-in" phase because if they can make the "zero concept" work, it will be a total game-changer. With no real progress in understanding or developing, the time is running out for Mercedes.

The German team is one of the most influential and wealthiest teams on the grid, with thousands of employees and billions to spend on research and development. So, why is it taking so long for them to resolve the porpoising problem?

Let's take McLaren as an example; probably the first team to find a solution for porpoising. They spend a lot of time and resources to resolve this effect, but unfortunately, all the other areas remained undeveloped in one way or another. As a result, McLaren had a horrible season start, and now they are battling to get in Q3 and finish in the top ten.

Mercedes is trying to avoid that by casually developing and improving all the areas simultaneously. That's why many F1 experts say the Mercedes will be back at the top if they can eliminate this annoying effect.

Because it is such a complex process, it will take a long time for the Silver Arrows to get a hand on the interacting airflows under and around the floor, meaning if they don't do it correctly, the following season could be even worse than the current one.