Mercedes were the talk of the town on Thursday after unveiling their sidepod-less W13 design with reports indicating that they’ve found the best formula for the new regulations. But Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin insists it remains too early to tell whether they’ve got it right or not.
Mercedes came away from the Barcelona test last month with plenty of work to do with both Ferrari and McLaren tipped to close the gap to the Silver Arrows.
Red Bull too raised eyebrows with their own sidepod design in Barcelona, with Mercedes admitting that it was something they would take a look at.
But Mercedes caught everyone by surprise this week with their complete overhaul on the design of the W13 for Bahrain testing.
The aggressive design has been heralded by many with the cooling system packaged more centrally, creating space for a tightly-packed sidepod which may well significantly help aerodynamic performance.
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How that truly affects performance on the track remains to be seen with Bahrain testing difficult to gauge the true pace of every team.
But Mercedes have certainly caught the attention of their rivals with Ross Brawn also admitting that protests could be inevitable.
Red Bull and every other F1 team on the grid will not want Mercedes holding a huge advantage heading into the first race of the season.
However, Shovlin insists there is still plenty of work to be done to understand whether Mercedes do in fact have the best car when the Bahrain Grand Prix gets underway next week.
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“We’ve got quite a lot of work still to do regarding validation of the update kit and will continue the data collection programme over the next few days so it’s a bit early to say whether everything is working as expected,” Shovlin said.
“There is certainly more to find in getting the balance right between slow and high-speed corners, and there’s also a bit too much tyre overheating.
“So, plenty to keep us busy for the next two days but we are on a steep learning curve with the new car and tyres.”
There was some confusion on Thursday when quotes attributed to Christian Horner emerged where he reportedly called Mercedes’ design ‘not legal’.
Horner later denied the comments, but reports elsewhere indicated that he did speak at length with Auto Motor und Sport about the W13’s legality.
Toto Wolff hit back at any suggestion the Mercedes car will come under scrutiny from rival teams, insisting they’ve been in constant discussion with the FIA throughout.
“When you go down a specific development direction, the FIA scrutinises it and you make them a part of the process,” he said.
“We were keen on not running alone, but being in touch with the FIA, that is why I think it will be OK.
“It is clear that when you come with an innovation it creates the kind of debate that we are having here. That was expected.”
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