The wide floor doubt over Mercedes’ zero-pod concept

Having failed to make much progress in getting the concept to work, with the W13 beset by porpoising problems, the Barcelona event is key to its future.

With Mercedes having a wealth of data from pre-season testing that took place with its launch spec sidepods, direct comparisons of performance will deliver some key indicators about what direction the team should take with its car.

The more the team has dug into the W13’s issues, the more it suspects that core to its problem is the fact that the zero-pod idea has exposed much more floor area, which is especially sensitive on the 2022 ground effect machines.

As Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said in Miami: “If you walk through the grid, you can see that our floor edges stick out much wider than anybody else’s. That gives it a different way, or much more scope, of possible instability.

“I think that’s where our concept varies. Clearly the Barcelona launch car is much slower on paper, but we need to find out how we can make the current car work predictably for the drivers.”

Mercedes’ solution does indeed expose more of the floor, which in turn gives more freedom to the airflow passing around the car, spreading the load being created across a much wider section of the floor.

For Mercedes, this appears to create porpoising at lower speeds than some of its rivals. The ill effects caused by the phenomenon therefore starts earlier than the opposition, and then also outlasts them, with recovery not occurring until Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are much further into the braking zone.

Given that all of the teams have been suffering with porpoising to one extent or another, after pre-season testing the FIA allowed teams to install a single stay either side of the car, ahead of the rear wheels, for the start of the campaign.

In Mercedes’ case, this metal stay appears to be significantly longer than its counterparts, as it’s not passing…