UNITED KINGDOM: Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, has confirmed that the team is planning “more radical changes” to their W14 car design after a disappointing start to the 2021 season in Bahrain.
While the team has been known for their strong performance in previous seasons, they fell behind the Ferraris, Red Bulls, and even one of the Aston Martins in the opening race.
In the Mercedes’ post-race debrief video, Shovlin said that “visible changes” will be made to the car over the next few races.
There are rumors in the F1 paddock that the team has a B-spec version of the car waiting in the wings, and Shovlin’s comments confirm that changes are indeed coming.
However, he noted that “big changes” take time to develop and turn into a faster solution in the wind tunnel.
Mercedes’ team principal, Toto Wolff, also expressed doubts that the current W14 design will ever be competitive.
According to Shovlin, the team’s most significant learning point from the opening race is that it has “a lot of work to do.”
One of the major areas of concern for the team is the significant gap between themselves and the front runners.
Shovlin explained that the gap was quite large in qualifying and even bigger in the race.
Additionally, the team needs to understand and work on the long-term degradation of their tires, which was a strong point for them last year.
Overall, Mercedes is working hard to understand what it can do in the short- and mid-term future to improve its performance and close the gap with its competitors.
While there have been rumours that former chief technical officer, James Allison, could return to the team, the common knowledge among sources is that the reports are inaccurate.
The team faces significant performance gaps between themselves and their competitors and needs to understand their car and improve its tyre degradation.
While changes are coming, they will take time to develop and turn into a faster solution in the wind tunnel.
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