Mercedes say their Spanish Grand Prix update has clearly improved their W13, but the team is not yet sure whether it will stick with its current car concept.
The team brought a package of changes largely focused on the car’s floor this weekend. The W13 appeared to porpoise much less than before in Friday practice, where Lewis Hamilton and George Russell posted competitive lap times.
The pair praised the improvements made by their team after the session. “I’m glad they’re confident,” said the team’s technical director Mike Elliott.
“We felt like we made a good step forward yesterday. The car seemed a lot more settled, it did what we were hoping it to do.”
However he was wary of over-stating the gains the team had made. “We also looked quite quick on Friday in Miami so I think we’ll wait to see where we are in qualifying and the race and then we’ll know.”
The porpoising the team had suffered was preventing them from being able to run the car low enough to the ground to generate sufficient downforce. The team’s promising showing in Friday practice for the Miami Grand Prix gave them useful information on how to solve their problems with the W13, said Elliott.
“After Miami we went and had a very good look through the data, trying to understand what happened between Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There’s a few things came out of that.
“The package we brought here we’re definitely able to run the car in a position much more close to where we’d ideally run it. So there’s a chunk of downforce that comes from that. And the car just is a lot more settled.
“The drivers look happy now. The body language is coming from them that says they feel the car is a bit more like a race car. But until we get into qualifying and the race it’s difficult to know where we are.”
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The gains Mercedes have found haven’t solely come from addressing the porpoising problem,…