© Daimler AG
Mercedes’ Chief Technical Officer James Allison says that, “with a bit of luck”, the team will sort the issues they have with their car “rapidly”.
There has been a lot of debate over what is causing Mercedes’ lack of performance compared to their rivals Red Bull and Ferrari, in the opening stage of the 2022 season.
Some are saying the problem might have to do with their engine lacking in power, but James Allison says he doesn’t think that’s the case.
“I think most of that is coming from the size of our rear wing,” the Briton said in Mercedes’ Bahrain Grand Prix debrief.
“If you look at the cars coming down the straights one after the other and just look at the frontal area of the rear wings that each team has, you will see that we were running the biggest rear wing.
“Rear wings are a large factor in how much drag the car has and the amount of drag a car has is a large factor in what the end of straight speed of the car will be.
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“Now there will be other differences of course, there may be small differences in the power of the engines, but I don’t think any of us, none of the teams have got a handle on that at the moment, exactly what the pecking order is, and they are likely to be small if differences at all.”
Ultimately, Allison doesn’t think the main question is why the W13 is slow in a straight line, but actually why does it need more downforce than its rivals.
“That of course is the million dollar question here. We’ve spent a lot of time and effort and love on trying to make the car as quick as it possibly can be but we haven’t yet delivered something competitive.
“We are having to run a big wing at the moment to give ourselves the downforce to do the best lap time we can with our car, but it is falling short of what is necessary for competitiveness.
“So, with a bit of luck and in the coming races we will rapidly improve our car and that will allow us also to drag some rear wing out of it and will allow us to pick up our speed on the straight as a consequence,” concluded the Briton.
