Mercedes Fia Summer
Mercedes Fia Summer
The FIA and Formula 1 introduced one of the biggest regulatory overhauls in F1 history heading into this 2022 season with the new cars switching to a ground effect aerodynamic concept that is designed to reduce the amount of dirty air the cars create, thus allowing drivers to follow each other more closely than ever without sacrificing performance which they hope would lead to better and more action-packed races than ever before.
But what the FIA and teams did not expect with the huge overhaul was the associated problem that came with the big change which has now been called porpoising. A phenomenon that a good amount of teams suffered within the early stages of the season with Mercedes being one of the worst teams that have had to deal with it with the problem reaching its peak at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix which has forced the team and a good amount drivers to bring the problem to the FIA’s attention which has forced the governing body to now come up with directives for this and next year’s season.
And while Red Bull and Ferrari may not like it, the FIA has clearly sided with Mercedes as president Mohammed ben Sulayem has announced the rules for next season will be tweaked. So what are the new regulations for next season? How does Mercedes feel about it? And what do Christian Horner and Mattia Binotto have to say about the new regulations? Well, let’s talk about it then. But before we do, consider subscribing to the channel to get updated on our latest uploads.
Now let’s get started then After long and heated battles between team bosses jockeying to influence the FIA’s decision, it seems as though Toto Wolff and Mercedes have won again in swaying the FIA’s decision for next year’s regulations as Toto would argue with the FIA and other team bosses that he is speaking out on the grounds of his drivers’ safety and nothing else. In his words:
“The FIA has commissioned medical work on the porpoising. The outcome, the summary of the doctors is that a frequency of one to two hertz, sustained for a few minutes, can lead to brain damage. We have six to seven hertz over several hours. So the answer is very easy. The FIA needs to do something about it. Do we know what needs to be done? Maybe we have only a direction. Lifting the floor edges up clearly is one of the directions.”
And it seems this argument by Toto was worked as the FIA’s president Mohammed ben Sulayem would announce:
“Having discussed the porpoising issue with all 20 F1 drivers & 10 team principals, I’m happy to confirm that we will be submitting updated 2023 Technical Regulations to the WMSC this week to address this, in addition to the measures already taken for the remainder of this season.”
This announcement came after the FIA had announced earlier this week that they had decided to make a compromise of only increasing the minimum floor edge height to only 15mm not 25mm which they had originally proposed once the talks began. This came after a good number of teams were not in favor since it would put too much of a financial constraint on a few teams on the grid. And while Toto did not get the full 25mm he had hoped for, the Mercedes team boss believes that the new regulations will make things interesting next year saying:
“It’s going to be very interesting. Let’s see if the difference in ride height makes a difference for the teams that drive that low. I don’t believe in silver bullets about us suddenly being three tenths faster than anyone else, but it will be interesting.”
And while Toto sees a positive future for Mercedes with the new regulations, Ferrari and Red Bull team bosses Mattia Binotto and Christian Horner are the complete opposite as Mattia would reveal that the team is figuring out how to stop the changes to next year’s rules. Mattia would say to Motorsport.com Italy:
“I hope there won’t be any changes, I don’t see any real reasons to make changes to the technical regulations for safety reasons, especially if we look at the latest races… there are no reasons to introduce changes to the technical regulation by citing safety reasons. So, I think it can’t happen, and if it does, we’ll try to figure out how to stop them.”
Meanwhile Horner would say:
It’s a compromise that we’re just going to have to incorporate for next year. We’ll just have to deal with it and find a solution. That’s what we’ve been good at over the years, and we’ll just have to do that with this challenge.
Now as Toto has said, these new regulations do not automatically gain the team the few tenths they are losing to both Ferrari and Red Bull, but it undoubtedly gives them a bigger chance of doing so compared to if there were no minimum ride height for every team to abide by because as we all know the only plausible way of getting rid of porpoising is raising the ride height which then costs the car performance and pace.
This has been the biggest conundrum Mercedes has had to face earlier in the season, but as the calendar came closer and closer to the summer break it has been more apparent that the Silver Arrows team has suffered less and less from the porpoising. The team’s head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin would reveal this week that the team has indeed eliminated the bouncing problem the W13 in the earlier races of the season.
“Bouncing is no longer an issue at all said Shovlin. “We still have a few things in the quiver, nothing spectacular but things that will take us further. We are no longer going around in circles but are now moving forward continuously. Also with the set-up.”
Toto would also support this statement by Shovlin saying:
From Spain onwards we started to understand the car better but we are a few months behind our opponents in terms of development.
The recent resurgence from the Mercedes has also impressed ex-F1 driver now analyst Jolyon Palmer who believes that a race win is in the team’s reach once the season starts. In his words:
“Thirteen races in and the trajectory of the team is the clearest of all on the grid they are undoubtedly edging their way towards a first victory of the season, which I predict they will have in the next handful of races. We head into the summer shutdown with Verstappen and Red Bull sailing away into the distance and Ferrari looking over their shoulders at Mercedes fast approaching, a feat you’d have struggled to believe after the way this season started.”
And it seems as though Jolyon isn’t the only one that is excited by the team’s recent performance as Lewis Hamilton has also shared in his recent interview with Vanity Fair that the new set of challenges the new regulations has brought is bringing back the fire he thought he had lost after a controversial loss to say the least at the end of last season that cost him his 8th world title. In Lewis’ words:
“I’ll be lying if I said that I hadn’t thought about extending. I’m still on the mission, I’m still loving driving, I’m still being challenged by it. So I don’t really feel like I have to give it up any time soon. I’m built different. I mean, I was built for this. It reminds me that people still don’t know me. Even after all these years. People still don’t know. So, all right, I’ll prove you wrong again.”
Lewis would also be asked if former rival and friend Sebastian Vettel’s announcement of his retirement at the end of the season has caused Hamilton to consider the same, the 7 time world champion would reply with:
It doesn’t. It’s a reminder that I am in that part of my career that the people I came up with and race with for so long are starting to stop. Before you know it, Fernando [Alonso] will not be there and then who is after that? I will be the oldest I guess. It has not made me think about that because I am thinking about how I can improve this car, what the next step is we need to get this team winning again, what is the road map to winning another world championship.
And there you have it guys, so what do you think? Did the FIA side with Mercedes too much with the new regulations for next season? Will Ferrari and Red Bull figure out a way to keep Mercedes at bay next season? And will Lewis extend his contract beyond next season? Let us know in the comment section below and always don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t!
