2023-08-14 10:20:32
After failing to keep its machines at the proper height for the past two seasons, Mercedes believes it has finally found the sweet spot for the height of its 2024 F1 car. Mercedes F1 has had a difficult time since switching to ground effects cars from the 2022 season.
Last year’s W13 was plagued with pooping, with a small ride-height window to generate downforce, effectively forcing it to drive very close to the ground. As a result, bouncing is more likely to occur as the downforce level increases, while the suspension has to be run stiffer, making it more prone to problems on bumpy tracks and curbs. For this year’s W14, the team is aiming for a wider range of downforce, and the FIA thought it would help to raise the floor edge by 15mm. But Mercedes seems to have been too cautious with its height approach. Mercedes, who shy away from running so close to the ground, found themselves running much higher than the rest, ruining their performance as a result. This was confirmed by technical director James Allison, who said the decision was made to avoid the risk of a porposing problem. “Last year we made great progress, but for 2023 we have presented all teams with rule changes to prevent bouncing,” Allison said. “During the winter, we’re forced to choose between being aggressive and trading performance once morest the bouncing rule changes, or taking a more cautious path and avoiding the poses that ruined last year’s season. “We chose the cautious path because we knew it would be less painful to correct if we were wrong. So far, most of our stories this year have been regarding We discovered that we were being overly cautious and made changes to correct that.” The current generation of machines that utilize the underfloor vortex are so complex that the ride height has to be radically changed. Changing it would mean a complete overhaul of the aeromap, which is not really possible during the season. Mercedes feels it’s something he can only deal with during the winter when he has his sights set on a new car. It was too low in 2022 and too high this year, but chief technical officer Mike Elliott believes the W15 car in 2024 has done the right thing. Asked if he thought Mercedes had identified the sweet spot, Elliott said: “The real difficulty is the limited number of runs given the aero test limits. I have to,” he said. “If you want to develop a car that can cover all heights, a car with a high car, a car with a low car, all of a sudden, you will run three cars a week, and you won’t be able to go anywhere.” And then, as we learn, we can tweak that direction and move it around a bit. I hope we’re in the right place for the winter.” Mercedes is currently focusing most of its efforts on developing its 2024 car, but Elliott says he won’t hold back on the W14 for as long as possible. “I think we can do more and we are still fighting for second place in the championship,” said Elliott. “We will continue to develop, but obviously the main focus now is next year’s car.” “Basically, we want to win the World Championship,” Elliott said. “I think that’s our biggest focus and we’re going to put all our effort into it,” he said. “When you try to develop a completely new car, when you make architectural changes, it’s hard to keep that pace in the wind tunnel. So really some of the running that we’re doing for this year’s car is just a useful learning experience that doesn’t have a big impact on next year’s car, it’s just learning on the track. helpful
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