Mercedes not discounting ditching F1 zero-pod concept after Spanish GP

The German car manufacturer is struggling to tame the porpoising problems that have beset the W13 since the start of the season and have left the squad unable to challenge Ferrari and Red Bull.

While the team continues to chase answers, it views the next F1 race at Barcelona as a key moment in defining its next steps.

For, having run at the track in pre-season testing with its standard sidepod launch spec, its running over the Spanish GP will give it a golden opportunity to compare the behaviour and potential of the different concepts.

And, with not much progress having been made so far this year, Mercedes thinks a call has to be made soon on whether to plough on with the ‘zero-pod’ solution or do something different.

Asked by Motorsport.com if it could rule out going back to the launch spec philosophy if Barcelona shows that’s the way to go, Wolff said: “Well I wouldn’t discount anything, but we need to give all our people benefit of the doubt.

“They have produced great race cars in the past and we believe that this is the route to go. Barcelona is definitely going to be a point in time where we are able to correlate with what we saw in February and gather more data.

“I’m also annoyed about saying the same thing about gathering data and making experiments, but it’s physics and not mystics, and therefore you have to unpick the data.”

What Mercedes needs to get out of the Spanish GP weekend is the answer as to whether the theoretical performance benefits of the current ‘zero-pod’ solution can be attained in real life.

Having the data from running there, compared to testing, will give it the chance therefore to better understand if the old concept – which in theory produces less downforce – is actually better in the real world.

Focus is turning to the fact that Mercedes’ zero-pod concept may have delivered unintended consequences in exposing more of the…