The false dawn F1 puzzle that Miami gave Mercedes new hope

But as the weekend carried on, Mercedes could not recapture that form and it again found itself fighting at the front of the midfield pack rather than with Ferrari and Red Bull.

What Mercedes now needs to understand is whether it was flattered by Friday or underperformed over the rest of the weekend.

One factor that appears to have played to Mercedes on Friday was that its tyre warm up struggles were masked by track temperatures and a lack of rubber on the new surface. This contributed towards the team being able to find a sweet spot during Friday’s running, something it failed to achieve on Saturday, as grip ramped up and the track evolved.

Although Mercedes did make some set-up changes between Friday and Saturday, in an attempt to extract more performance, the rollercoaster form has at least confirmed to the team that the problems with its W13 are not entirely aerodynamic in nature.

In fact, ill-effects posed by porpoising are just one of the puzzle pieces that the German car manufacturer needs to resolve in order to get the best from the W13.

Mercedes introduced a handful of new components for the Miami GP to try and both boost performance and cater for the demands of the new track. While it is fighting to resolve issues with the car, the team’s design ingenuity certainly doesn’t seem to have been suppressed – as its new front wing design is by far and away the most unique interpretation of the new regulations we’ve seen so far.

Making a paradigm shift

Up until now, most teams have toed the line with regards to the design of the front wing elements and the endplate juncture, with each of the designs similar to those presented by FOM before the season got underway.

The regulations in this region of the car had purposely been formulated to work in conjunction with the 18-inch wheel rims, lower profile tyres, wheel covers and less complex brake duct designs,…