© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes’ technical director Mike Elliott says “the gains to be found on next year’s car have been pretty large”, so the focus had to shift to the 2022 car early.
With Formula 1 introducing radical new regulations for 2022, the new cars had to be designed from scratch.
This presented the teams with a difficult choice of whether to focus on developing their current car or to switch focus to their 2022 challenger, thus sacrificing their immediate performance.
Mercedes had done the latter and Mike Elliott explains why.
“I think the difficulty for all teams is the regulations that we were operating to,” the Briton told Autosport.
“They have been established for so long, that the gains you make are relatively small.
“It’s a lot of effort that goes into finding a tenth or two in the wind tunnel. Whereas the gains to be found on next year’s car have been pretty large.
“It was always going to mean that, if you put all your eggs in [the 2021] basket, you’re in really big trouble next season, and that balance is really difficult to strike.
“I think if you’re a team further down the grid, maybe that’s a bit easier to put your eggs into next year’s basket than it is for us.
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“And the other problem we’ve got to deal with, along with the competitors that are around us in terms of performance, is that the aero testing restrictions mean that the front running teams have less runs to spend as well.
“So that again forces you into making really difficult decisions.”
Elliott also explained how the now $140 million budget cap will impact car development in 2022.
“The impact is going into future cars. That’s not to say it hasn’t had an impact. It does.
“You’ve got to think carefully about: is the bit of research you’re doing or the thing you’re bringing the car worth the cost it’s gonna cost you? But as an engineer, I think those judgements have always been there.
“In the past it might have been aerodynamic performance versus mechanical performance or overall aero mechanical performance versus mass.
“Even that cost equation has existed in the past because clearly you wouldn’t do things that were stupid money for little return. The balance has shifted slightly. But I don’t think it’s been massive.
“I think we’ll see much more of that next season and into next season’s development,” Elliott concluded.
