Following a major overhaul to F1’s aerodynamic regulations, Mercedes shocked the paddock by going completely down their own route and adopting a ‘zero sidepod’ soluti💖on that differed greatly🦄 to Red Bull and Ferrari’s designs. 

Mercedes went on to endure a difficult season with their troubled W13 challenger, winning just one race as they slipped to third place in the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:F1 constructors’ standings after aไn unprecedented st🎉reak of eight consecutive world titles. 

Speaking in a🧸 recent interview with, Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott was asked if the team were surprised there were the only ones to favour their sidepod concept. 

“Not really,” Elliott responded. "We were surprised that no one else found this loophole. When you’ve gone down this path, it’s very hard ꧃to copy anything else.”

While Mercedes’ solution to the championship’s new regulations did not work, the team have maintai꧒ned belief in the♕ir unique sidepods.

At꧋ the end of last season, Me𒀰rcedes team boss Toto Wolff hinted the ‘DNA’ of the car could change for 2023 but stressed that “doesn’t necessarily mean that the bodywork is going to look very different”. 

However, 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:the latest reports point t🐼owards Mercedes mo♉ving towards a middle ground between their sidepod concept and the philosophy adopted by Red Bull for the W14. 

“We only have a partial view of things,” Elliott explained. “We only see what our car does. It’s difficult 🅺to 🍌judge how the other concepts react.

“We’ve been trying to understand the issues and get into a positi🦋on to predict the performance variations from track to track. 

“It has nothing to do with the shape of the sidepods, but more to do with how we designed the car and what oﷺur goals were.”

The performance of the W13 was largely hampered by extreme168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: porpoising and bouncing during the early stages of 2022 but Mercedes are confident they h⛄ave found a solution to avoid a repeat of the issues next season. 

“At the beginning of the season we had to deal with aerodynܫamically generated bouncing like everyone else,” Elliott sa♉id. “That masked the real problems of the car.

“With our upgrade in Barcelona, we got rid of most of the aero bounce. The bouncing that was still there at t🐟he end was caused by bumps. It’s inherent in these cars✨ that are just above the road.

“At first we couldn’t explain why it always looked different from track to t𝔍rack. Later, our predictions became more accurate. Our simulations gave us a pretty accurate indication of which track would b♚e good or bad for us.

“We now a🏅lso have a good theory of what we need to do so that this doesn’t happen to us again next season. That gives us confidence over the winter. But in Formula 1, unfortunately, you n♉ever know everything.”

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton will be aiming to bounce back from statistically his worst F1 season by winning a record-breaking eighth world title in 2023, while teammate 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell seeks his first.