The German manufacturer has endured a challenging time since the switch to ground-effect cars at the start of the 2022 campaign.
Last year’s W13 was blighted by porpoising, and the squad battled with a small ride height operating window for where its car produced downforce, which effectively forced it to run very close to the ground.
This had a double whammy effect of risking bouncing as the downforce levels increased but also required the car to be run with stiff suspension that exposed it to problems with bumpy tracks and kerbs.
For this year’s W14, the team aimed at delivering downforce over a much wider range of ride heights, which it felt would be helped by the FIA lifting the edge of the floors by 15mm.
But it is understood Mercedes ended up being too cautious with its ride height approach. Having been shy of running close to the ground, it found itself running much higher than others – which left performance on the table.
The extremely complicated nature of the current generation of cars, which are reliant on the harnessing of vortices underneath the floor, means that making a radical change of ride height means an almost total rethink of aero maps – something that is not really possible mid-season.
Instead, it is something that Mercedes feels can only be addressed over the winter as it looks to its new car.
Source: Autosport