TJ13 recently revealed the behind the scenes internal debate within Brackley that raged during much of the 2022 season. 7 times drivers’ world champion Lewis Hamilton believed the concept behind the W13 should be scrapped whilst the engineers proud of their design fought to retain it for longer.
Confused Mercedes approach set to compromise Hamilton’s hopes
Recent revelations clearly demonstrate Hamilton was over ruled as the Brackley tech guru’s have been given a last ditch effort to prove their ‘zero sidepod’ car philosophy can be made to work.
Mercedes ‘Plan B’ car set to doom Hamilton’s hopes
However, Sky’s F1 reporter Ted Kravitz revealed during the Bahrain test that Mercedes have a “plan B” car design which they can launch mid season should the Brackley engineers prove to be wrong.
Of course a plan B car would doom Hamilton and Russell to another year of mere development with just two more years of these regulations left to run.
Days after the Plan B revelation was made, Mercedes are now scrambling to deny they are in some kind of half way house limbo.
Merc tech team refuse to abandon car design
The 8 times world champion team suffered a difficult second day at the Bahrain test, though Lewis Hamilton managed to headline day 3 with a time second quickest only to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Despite Hamilton describing last season’s W13 as “one of the worst cars” e’sever driven, Wolff and the other senior management at Brackley have been persuaded to give way to their techies persuasion the car has unlocked potential.
Mercedes Technical Director, Mike Elliot, now confirms, “So there is a bodywork coming, it will look different. It won’t look like somebody else’s, it will look like an evolution of ours. That’s on its way.”
Elliot denies a B-car, sort of
It appears Mercedes tech guru’s are desperate not to admit they got it wrong and will have to fall in line with the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari designs.
When asked whether a “B-Spec” car was in the pipeline should the ill fated evolution of the W13 fail to deliver, Mike Elliot was coded in his reply.
“It’s not in our current plans,” is all he would reveal.
Mercedes are expected to run a different and less ‘draggy’ rear wing at the Bahrain GP and also Elliot revealed, “We’re probably not running the front wing we’ll run when we come racing.”
Improvements ready for Bahrain GP
Elliot claimed Mercedes were also running extra ballast during the test but will be closer to the 798kg limit come race weekend.
All in all Elliot is attempting to keep the media at bay, but the pressure will continue to grow if Mercedes fail to deliver.
Hamilton and Russell both benefited a lot from Red Bull and Ferrari dropping points during the first half of last year. Ferrari then turned down their power unit for better reliability which again gave Mercedes a false advantage during the second half of the season.
Podiums may be a lot harder to come by this year for Lewis and George and with a resurgent Aston Martin expected to keep Mercedes honest. Top 5 finishes could become harder fought for the once all conquering F1 outfit.
Pingback: Mercedes’ denial of the “plan B car” is unconvincing – Automotive Dealer News·
MB Engineers are not bending over backwards to accommodate Hamilton’s strident demands. Nor is Wolff pushing them. All the brouhaha about Hamilton signing a new very-long-time contract for hundreds of millions has sunk without a trace. All pointing to the fact that MB is disenchanted with that individual. As I have always said about him, all his
MB-gifted victories made him imagine that he is an apex predator. The only way left for him now is to go nosediving. Sorry to see his imminent disgraceful end though.
You do spout some nonsense, Vijay – clutching at absolute straw here
You should spend less energy hating, but its good that at least you have found a home here