F1 News: Mercedes Engineering Director Reflects On not Copying Red Bull Design

"You don't get there by copying everyone else's design."

Mercedes had a difficult 2022 season with multiple issues with the W13, which they are all happy to see behind them as they head into 2023. Many have questioned whether things might have been different for the team if they had gone for a similar sidepod design to Red Bull and Ferrari. However, Mercedes trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, claims they never considered doing.

Mercedes claim that the problems that they endured were completely unrelated to the 'zero sidepod' design that the W13 had.

Shovlin has explained that the team did not feel they needed to focus on the sidepod design as it was not hindering the performance. He said:

“Most of the engineering, certainly from the aerodynamic point of view, a lot of it are the bits you can't see under the floor. That is where a lot of that work is.

“The sidepod concept was something that we had to commit to anyway for the year realistically. But if we'd been more focused on just trying to find a quick fix, we may have been copying and rolling it out and seeing what it does.

“The goal for us though was always to try and understand it ourselves and learn and find our own path, because if you want to win, and you want to win races and world championships, you don't get there by copying everyone else's design.

“All our other cars have had pioneering features on them, they had clever ideas. We have tried to be leading with the technology, so we'll carry on doing that.”

We are yet to see if Mercedes will continue with the 'zero sidepod' design for the 2023 season. Red Bull, who dominated the 2022 season by winning the constructor's championship at the Austin Grand Prix and Max Verstappen winning the driver's championship at the Japanese GP, had a low-drag car. Whereas, Mercedes W13 suffered from high-drag. 

Speaking about the Red Bull in comparison to the W13, Shovlin explained:

“When you've got a completely new set of rules, it's difficult to know where everyone is going to design to.

“Their car looks like it has less drag if we put the same wings on it. In the earlier part of the year, we were having to run very high [downforce levels], which was certainly not helping from that point of view.

“But if you look at Brazil, we didn't have the fastest car, but we could overtake them and we were able to get the 1-2. So making it quick in a straight line is not our highest priority. And one of the fastest in a straight line is the Williams. So it doesn't define your performance level.

“But when you are very similar, obviously, it's a nice advantage to have. So it's something we'd like to fix. It's just that the priority will always be the base performance of the car and getting that in the right place.”

The team were able to make some significant improvements towards the end of the 2022 season which showed with a 1-2 finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix with George Russell taking his first career win. 

Shovlin went on to explain that they are aware that the problem could return when more downforce is added to the car. He said:

“The more you load up the floor, the more you can trigger those problems. Where we have made very good progress is in the straightline. So back in Imola, Jeddah, Bahrain, all those early races, the car was bouncing really badly at high speed. And we managed to get a really good handle on that.

“There were still issues we got when the car rolled in a fast corner and the floor gets to a point where it's touching. And that can cause a bit of unsteadiness. But the rule changes for next year will help that.

“Fundamentally, though, they're not going to make the problem go away. They'll make it a bit easier for the teams. But we're hopeful that the work we put into the learning and the understanding in the early part of the year will help us at least develop to a good baseline next year.”