Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says the team’s “narrow sidepod concept” had “absolutely nothing to do with the car not performing”.
During the 2022 Bahrain pre-season test, Mercedes introduced the innovative ‘narrow sidepod’ car concept, which stunned observers and other teams.
However, it did not help Mercedes’ performance, as the team struggled in the first half of the season, before slowly improving with each race in the second part.
While many have blamed the team’s car trouble on their sidepod concept, Toto Wolff says it was not the reason for the problems.
“I am proud by the boldness we put into the car,” the Austrian said on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast.
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“When you look at the narrow sidepod concept, which had absolutely nothing to do with the car not performing, it was something that I am proud of, how it came about finding the design and putting it on the car.
“There are other areas that were really good – a power unit that has done us well throughout the season, reliability was great, too.
“Also on the chassis side, we had a high peak downforce, we just couldn’t run the car where we would be able to generate that,” Wolff concluded.