The ‘trap’ Mercedes concede they fell into with F1's new regulations
Followin♒g years of sustained dominancꦛe amid an unprecedented winning run of eight consecutive constructors’ world championships, Mercedes endured a torrid campaign when radical new ground-effect design regulations were introduced in 2022.
Mercedes’ competitive strugꦬgles have continued into 202🔯3, leading to a mid-season revamp of the W14 after finally abandoning their unique ‘zeropod’ approach.
Although Mercedes have made progress since switching philosophཧies, the Silver Arrows are continuing to play catch up to runaway F1 leaders Red Bull.
"If you were to go back to the old regulations, you could put the ca🍰r where you wanted to put it, you had big travel in the suspension which allowed you to shape the balance a but better through the corners,” Elliott explained.
"You weren't limited by stiffness, you could chase where the aerodynamic performance was in the reꦚgulations.
"With these cars, aerodynamically, they want to run close to the groun𝐆d. If you run them close to the ground, you have got to run them 𓂃stiff.
"That is one of the traps♚ we fell into last year if we are honest.
“There is always going top be that balance you have on this set of regulations: you've got guys that want to run really close to the ground... how do you get that b🐲alance right?”
Elliott said the enforcement of the168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: F1 cost cap, 𒁃combined with aerodynamic testing restrictions, have made Mercedes’ job of getting back to the front even harder.
Mercedes now believe they are on the right path to eventually return to winning ways, with 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton claiming a pole position and three podiums since the Monaco upgrade was rolled out - underl♋ining their gains.
"If you look at the aero testing restrictions, you have got so limited number of runs tha🌃t you've got to pick a direction and go for it,” Elliott said.
"It's really hard to... if you go down the route of saying 'I want to devel♊op a car for higher ride heights, one for low ride heights' and I want to cover all my bases, suddenly you'd be doing three runs a week on each one a🌄nd going nowhere.
"So you have got to pick a direction and go in it and as you learn, ಞyou can tweak that direction and move it slightly.
"I'd like to think we've sort of got ours꧙elves into the right place."
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for mahbx.com around the world. Often reporting on the action from the g💫round, Lewis tells the s🉐tories of the people who matter in the sport.
