The answers Mercedes needs from its low drag wing

As the booming fireworks that celebrated Max Verstappen’s victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix a fortnight ago drowned out conversations in the Jeddah paddock, Lewis Hamilton offered a succinct explanation for where Mercedes was lacking right now.

“We need more grip and we need more power,” he said.

It has been clear for a while that Mercedes’ problems are not just simply down to its car not being able to run at the ideal rideheight because of bouncing.

For while his team’s porpoising headaches have dominated its attention over the opening two race weekends, as big an amount of intrigue has surrounded the performance of the Mercedes power unit.

Where once the German manufacturer’s turbo hybrid was the class of the field, at best it is now equal in the pack behind Ferrari – and at worst it could be adrift of everybody.

But while speed trap figures for Mercedes and its customer teams have prompted many to suggest that Mercedes is well off the opposition, the difficulty of directly basing power verdicts on top speed alone is that it does not take in to account downforce levels.

We have already seen that Ferrari, who many believe has the best engine on the F1 grid, has been off Red Bull in the speed traps so far this season. And that is because its Milton Keynes rival has been running with lower wing levels, and hence less drag, because it wants a car that is more racy on Sundays.

Hamilton wants both more grip and more power from his Mercedes F1 car

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

From the Mercedes perspective, it has said since the Bahrain Grand Prix that, while the speed trap figures do not look fantastic, it feels its straightline speed has been held back by it running its maximum downforce rear wing.

Perhaps most interesting is that the high downforce (and therefore high drag) solution used so far is the only one that Mercedes had readied for the start of the season.

In F1’s cost cap era, where the top teams are having to be ultra careful with their development spending, Mercedes elected to only have its high downforce option available.

"If you looked at the spread between Mercedes cars with the same engine, it was showing on our analysis that Mercedes [works team] were actually the worst off. But that's because they chose to run very high downforce" Pat Fry

When the decision was made to go that route, it was felt it would be a good enough answer for the demands of the first two tracks – with some of the wing elements being cut back for Saudi’s straights to help it achieve the drag levels it wanted.

As Mercedes head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin said about the changes for Saudi: “We have got another wing that's in the pipeline, that's a dedicated low drag wing that couldn't achieve high downforce.

“This wasn't a response to Bahrain. When we were developing the car, we'd already planned to be able to achieve this drag level. But it was interesting to see how the car works at low drag level. And through the weekend, we've just been going lower and lower.”

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Mercedes’ work on a bespoke low drag wing, which could appear in time for Imola or Miami, is important therefore for two separate avenues.

The first is that amid the complicated chase for answers about how Mercedes can switch off the porpoising, the team could find that a lower drag/downforce solution could deliver a step in helping address the issue.

But, beyond that, going lower on the drag means it should also get some answers about how much it really is behind the opposition in power terms as it should run with similar drag levels to everyone else.

All Mercedes-powered cars were considerably off the pace in the speed traps in Saudi Arabia

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

For however much people have been pointing out the lowly performance of the Mercedes customer teams, rival operations are not so convinced there is a clear answer yet about just where the Three Pointed Star stacks up in power terms.

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto suggested that the differences between all the manufacturers was ‘very little’ and ‘contained’.

Alpine’s chief technical officer Pat Fry reckoned that his team’s analysis of the situation showed a big spread even between the Mercedes-powered teams – which makes no sense amid the rules that requires all customer power units to be identical spec.

“It's hard to know exactly where we are yet,” said Fry about how the Renault engine compares. “Obviously, we do all the same GPS and sound analysis, and for everyone it’s looking very, very close. I think Viry have done a fantastic job [with the Renault engine], but it is still hard to know where people stand.

“Even if you looked at the spread between Mercedes cars with the same engine, it was showing on our analysis that Mercedes [works team] were actually the worst off. But that's because they chose to run very high downforce, which you can get away with around somewhere like Bahrain.”

This is why Mercedes running at the same drag levels will be critical for it understanding exactly where its power unit stacks up – and if it has fallen behind.

Mercedes’ arch rival Red Bull of course has its own theory about what has happened – with Helmut Marko suggesting that the loss of senior staff, including former engine chief Andy Cowell, plus the change to E10 fuel this year, has had a double whammy impact.

“Logic points to an explanation being connected with the fuel,” said Marko. “And of course, when you have such a bloodletting, first of all Andy Cowell [departing], and then a good 50 people who are gone, the impact would actually be quite normal.”

Toto Wolff has been open about Mercedes' problems with its W13 F1 car

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

For now, Mercedes is not pinpointing any blame on a specific area of the car, with its focus fully on turning things around. As Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said: “We operate together as a team and I think we have deficits overall that are bigger than an engine deficit. Are we among the top teams in any of these areas? No, I don't think so.

“But you have to remember that this engine has helped us win eight championships in a row. Now we just all have to grab each other by the scruff of the neck and with all our strength, pull ourselves out of this mess.”

Mercedes running at the same drag levels as its rivals will be critical for it understanding exactly where its power unit stacks up

But while there remains hope that an answer to its porpoising headaches can deliver the performance step in grip that has been lacking so far, any confirmation that its power unit is behind in the next few weeks will not be so easy to address.

With F1’s engine freeze in place, manufacturers are only allowed to make engine modifications for the: “sole purposes of reliability, safety, cost saving, or minimal incidental change.”

Hamilton may only be able to get one half of the grip/power improvements he is after.

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Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images