© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin reveals the team has “some interesting projects” in the works that will hopefully help their drivers gain “confidence in the car”.
Ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explained how Mercedes is progressing in understanding their 2023 car.
“Well, I mean, we were doing a lot of work to try and solve some of the problems on this car, make sure that we don’t have them next year,” the Briton said.
“We have moved it forward, the car we had previously, in 2022, that tended to be an awfully long way off in qualifying, it was generally racing a bit better.
“The performance was very, very track specific. So, some areas we have improved. The big issues, we’re just not quick enough.
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“So, we need to find a good chunk of performance, to challenge Red Bull in particular. But the other thing is the field is now super close.
“So, you look at some of the gaps we had 12 months ago, and you can have a decent qualifying position, you might be fourth or fifth on the grid but you were eight, nine tenths off.
“Now, if you do that, you end up getting bumped in Q1 or Q2. So there’s lots for us to work on.
“And certainly some of the work will be about making sure we can give the drivers the confidence in the car that they’re lacking at the moment. And that’s a big area.
“We’ve got some interesting projects that hopefully they’ll come off,” Shovlin concluded.
