The ground effect single-seater created by the minds of Brakley continue to work in finding its ideal habitat. The usage window of the W13 is small and the technicians are trying everything to expand it; but the halfway point of the world championship is near and the star He still seems to have unclear ideas on his creature.
The W13 is rarely at ease
Opinions on the machine without bellies are often mixed. The reason is attributable to awandering adaptability of the car. If in some tracks the W13 gave Hamilton and Russell no peace - you see Baku -, in others the two Englishmen had the possibility of feeling 'more of the match' with Ferrari e Red Bull.
In Grand Prix held yesterday il step of silver arrows was closer than usual to that of the two title contenders; the lap times, in fact, indicated a W13 on the right track. A performance that, also thanks to Leclerc penalty and upon the withdrawal of Perez, allowed the two pilots to conquer the lowest step of the podium and fourth position.
Beware of false illusions
What we have learned in this first third of the championship, however, is that there is no need to declare it reborn Mercedes easily. Miami the porpoising seemed to have disappeared and the tires reached temperature more easily; in Spain the W13 was considered in contention for the Munich weekend the following Sunday. Both expectations and hypotheses promptly denied within a few days. Mercedes' problems are still many, and it is not a given that they will be resolved in the short term.
The problems of the W13: it's not just porpoising
Hopping is the most visible vice on the silver single-seater, but the problems are not limited only to the bounces that damage the drivers' backs. The mechanics of the machine do not seem to work properly, and risky structural choices could be the cause of the failure to fight for the title. The W13 is too rigid, and the downforce it is generated with effort.
He expressed himself about it George Russell: “With the W13, when we solve one problem, another one of a different nature immediately arises. The porpoising was resolved, but then when we lower the height of the car we hit the ground very aggressively. At the moment There doesn't seem to be a real strong point. As far as we're concerned, we raced with a car that was high off the ground, but also low, and the performance neither improved nor worsened. The rigidity and bottom of the single-seater are always the same. When we raced with the car higher off the ground we saw a certain type of effect, while when we lowered it we saw others. Trying to fix the car several times is not a simple thing for this very reason."
"The overall stiffness of these single-seaters it's really big. Porpoising hasn't been that bad in Canada, but you keep hitting the ground like in Baku, in a decidedly less extreme way, precisely due to the nature of the circuit and the speed. But the general problems of these cars are far from being solved."
Wolff's words
The Team Principal of the team also had his say on the issues affecting the W13, and on the flashes of light that then disappear as easily as they arrive: “Our performance in Canada? One swallow does not make a summer. We saw that swallow already in Barcelona, but then it must have flown elsewhere. We must be careful. On Friday we didn't have a good pace. On Saturday in the rain we improved and then, in the race, we did better. At times we were among the fastest cars. In the second stint Lewis and George were almost as fast as the first. This is encouraging to see. The work to get back to the top is long" he said Toto Wolff, which he then continued.
“From what we have been able to observe, the bounce of the car due to porpoising it has been reduced noticeably. And I think the drivers have adapted. What you see in current single-seaters is precisely their rigidity. Just look at them Alpine, for example, how hard they come off curbs. A huge rebound. And this is precisely the reason why the drivers complain, the rigidity of the car. We must work to understand how to reduce this factor."
"I believe that we will have to try to have more downforce on the car, more downforce, and do it with a single-seater that it is not as low to the ground as we had expected. The direction is clear, you can see that the cars are rising. And this is where we need to find performance.", concluded the Austrian manager.
STATEMENT SOURCE: Motorsport.com Italy
