© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz says the upgraded Mercedes W14 is “neither a Red Bull nor an Aston Martin, neither magical nor muggle”.
After Mercedes revealed it big upgrade for the W14, Sky Sports F1’s reporter Ted Kravitz gave his initial thoughts on what he has seen.
“My instant reaction is that it’s a compromise – it’s neither a Red Bull nor an Aston Martin, neither magical nor muggle,” Kravitz said.
“The biggest change has to be first of all the sidepods. The most visual change is to the sidepods. The ‘no pods’ are no more, the slim-down sidepods have gone.
“Instead, we have these chunky sidepods but the car is somewhat compromised by the fact they have to keep their side impact structure.
“While on the Red Bull, it’s built into the sidepods, it has to stay on the Mercedes because that’s where they had it with the ‘no pods’.
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“So we have the sidepods coming out which has necessitated quite a big change to the radiator layout inside that.
“And in the wind tunnel this has brought performance, these new sidepods even though they stick out more than the old ones have brought performance.
“But the sidepods are not where the performance is. The performance comes from the floor, the floor is new and that’s where the downforce is generated.
“And to help keep the floor in the perfect attitude, they have redesigned the front suspension with a kind of Red Bull-inspired higher top wishbone and lower-leg rear wishbone to give some of the anti-dive properties that we’ve seen work so well on the RB19,” the Briton concluded.
