Mercedes still planning car and engine upgrades to boost F1 hopes
Mercedes has revealed it is planning to bring aerodynamic and engine improvements for the next races that it hopes can help it close the gap to Formula 1 rival Red Bull.


While team boss Toto Wolff said after its defeat in last weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix that the outfit’s development focus was fully on 2022’s rules, it has clarified that it does not mean that developments to the current W12 have stopped completely.
Technical director James Allison has revealed that Mercedes still has upgrades that have been under development for some time, plus the German manufacturer’s engine division is also looking at what tweaks it can make to power unit management to help there too.
Speaking to the F1 Nation Podcast, Allison said: “We have a reasonable number of things that are going to make our car faster in the coming races, and let's hope they prove sufficient.”
Asked how his remarks contrasted with Wolff’s comments regarding there being no further upgrades to the current car, Allison said: “I don't think those two things are at odds with each other. And I don’t think Toto has said precisely that.
“What Toto points out is that next year's rules are a big and hairy affair, and that they demand a huge amount of our attention. So most of the focus of our factory has switched over to next year, the performance discovery for next year.
“But that doesn't mean that there aren't things still in the food-chain from prior to that focus switch. And furthermore, it isn't all of the factory. And furthermore, we're only one of two factories, there's also the PU factory and there is a little bit more to come also from the PU.
“So there's some more aerodynamic change in the offing. A little bit on the PU, we hope, on the delivery side, and just a few things that are not quite as tidy as we would wish, that we still have got the opportunity to put right while this season is still very much alive and hot.”
Allison added that Mercedes’ challenge in finding performance gains with its current car had been made more difficult by the new floor rules for this year, which had cut back on downforce.
“Ever since the rule changes that were introduced aerodynamically for looking after the tyres, we have found it hellishly hard to find the sort of performance gain rate that we did previously prior to those rules," he explained. "So that has made our life trickier than we wished it to be.”

James Allison, Technical Director, Mercedes AMG
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
Allison also revealed that the 'wacky' set-up which trackside engineering chief Andrew Shovlin talked about after Styria was related to a mechanical aspect aimed at making the car performance better over both single lap and long runs.
“It was probably just sort of a bit of a colourful expression on Shov's part,” he said about it being 'wacky'. “It is a little different to how we normally run a car, mechanically. Aerodynamically it was very similar, ride height wise very similar.
“But [it was] just changing the roll distribution front to rear. That was different to how we normally would do it, seeking a better balance between single lap performance and long run performance.
“Whether we have got that compromise exactly as we would wish it, that sort of goes towards the list of unanswered questions that we're going to have an opportunity to answer by going back to the same track a second weekend running.”
He added: “We think it's quicker, but it's not without its compromises. So whether there is a better mousetrap, we'll find out.”
Related video

Ferrari can easily be ahead of McLaren in F1, says Norris
How secret cosmetics chemical is helping Red Bull's F1 charge

Latest news
Ferrari's F1 2022 engine gains greatest for more than 25 years
Ferrari's engine gains for the 2022 Formula 1 season are the greatest it has managed in more than 25 years, according to team principal Mattia Binotto.
Date set for 2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix
Organisers for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix have confirmed its early-season dates for the 2023 edition of the event.
Vettel: F1 should reinvest profits into race promoters to have greener events
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel thinks Formula 1 should reinvest some of its revenue into helping its race promoters put on more sustainable events.
Alpine has "absolutely no worries" of trouble with Alonso during 2022
Alpine Formula 1 boss Otmar Szafnauer remains confident that the team will retain a good relationship with Fernando Alonso, despite the Spaniard's decision to join Aston Martin.
How a bad car creates the ultimate engineering challenge
While creating a car that is woefully off the pace is a nightmare scenario for any team, it inadvertently generates the test any engineering department would relish: to turn it into a winner. As Mercedes takes on that challenge in Formula 1 this season, McLaren’s former head of vehicle engineering reveals how the team pulled of the feat in 2009 with Lewis Hamilton
The under-fire F1 driver fighting for his future
Personable, articulate and devoid of the usual racing driver airs and graces, Nicholas Latifi is the last Formula 1 driver you’d expect to receive death threats, but such was the toxic legacy of his part in last year’s explosive season finale. And now, as ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains, he faces a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid…
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
The returning fan car revolution that could suit F1
Gordon Murray's Brabham BT46B 'fan car' was Formula 1 engineering at perhaps its most outlandish. Now fan technology has been successfully utilised on the McMurtry Speirling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, could it be adopted by grand prix racing once again?
Hamilton's first experience of turning silver into gold
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has been lumbered with a duff car before the 2022 Mercedes. Back in 2009, McLaren’s alchemists transformed the disastrous MP4-24 into a winning car with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And now it’s happening again at his current team, but can the rate of progress be matched this year?
Why few could blame Leclerc for following the example of Hamilton’s exit bombshell
OPINION: Ferrari's numerous strategy blunders, as well as some of his own mistakes, have cost Charles Leclerc dearly in the 2022 Formula 1 title battle in the first half of the season. Though he is locked into a deal with Ferrari, few could blame Leclerc if he ultimately wanted to look elsewhere - just as Lewis Hamilton did with McLaren 10 years prior
The other McLaren exile hoping to follow Perez's path to a top F1 seat
After being ditched by McLaren earlier in his F1 career Sergio Perez fought his way back into a seat with a leading team. BEN EDWARDS thinks the same could be happening to another member of the current grid
How studying Schumacher helped make Coulthard a McLaren F1 mainstay
Winner of 13 grands prix including Monaco and survivor of a life-changing plane crash, David Coulthard could be forgiven for having eased into a quiet retirement – but, as MARK GALLAGHER explains, in fact he’s busier than ever, running an award-winning media company and championing diversity in motor racing. Not bad for someone who, by his own admission, wasn’t quite the fastest driver of his generation…