© Sebastian Kawka for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Toto Wolff says “Spa was an outlier in terms of what our car would like”, but in Belgium Mercedes is “right where the music plays”.
Mercedes suffered a huge drop in performance at the Belgian Grand Prix, especially in qualifying. However, on Friday at Zandvoort, the team had two of the best free practice sessions of 2022.
It has been suggested that Mercedes’ big issue of 2022 is the team’s ‘minimal sidepods’ design philosophy, which is completely different from everybody else on the grid.
Toto Wolff, however, says it’s the ‘invisible’ things that are making the difference.
“I think it’s more a question of things you don’t see on the car than what you see,” the Austrian said.
“It’s obvious we have a narrow sidepod concept and some other things, the rear floor is sticking out much more than on other cars.
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“And certainly that will play a role, but much more important is how we have developed the car to run low on the floor where we can’t run it, and what does it do to our suspension kinematic, and this is why at the moment it is just a bit of trial and error.”
Asked if it’s a case of ‘you never know what you’re going to get with the W13’, Toto said:
“It is a little bit like that. We understand now why that is and it is all about getting the car in the right balance aerodynamically but also grip-wise. Spa was an outlier in terms of what our car would like.
“Here is one of the better circuits and you can see that we are right where the music plays,” he concluded.
