F1 News: Mercedes Has Made 1 Simple Change To Up Its Performance In Saudi Arabia
The Bahrain Grand Prix was a lucky race for Mercedes as the team was struggling with several performance issues leading up to and during the race. Not only was the car seeing serious porpoising, but it was confirmed that the Mercedes is also having issues with too much drag, slowing the car down on the straights.
After both Red Bulls were forced to retire after powertrain failure, Lewis Hamilton achieved a podium finish behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
Toto Wolff said the following about the drag issue:
“We need to analyse the drag levels first before we really make a judgement of whether we’re lacking power.
“I don’t think that there’s big differences between the power units but clearly Ferrari made a big step forward.
“Last year they weren’t totally competitive and, if you look again at the singular event in Bahrain, it looks like they’ve outperformed everyone else.”
He continued:
“It’s easier to shed drag off a car because you simply take a chainsaw and cut the rear wing into bits,” he explained. “So that’s what we will be doing for Jeddah.”
“I think more than then really bringing parts it’s understanding how we can unleash the performance that we believe to be in the car. Or that we hope to be in the car.
“That’s a better word. Before throwing bits at it in terms of performance. This is where I would see it.”
Now, photos of the change have been posted to Twitter, and it looks as though Mercedes has simply cut a chunk out of its rear wing.
Mercedes ha recortado el flap superior para Jeddah. Menos carga para Jeddah.
Mercedes has trimmed the top flap. Less downforce for Jeddah.#SaudiArabianGP #F12022 pic.twitter.com/qphoRoDwzv
— Albert Fabrega (@AlbertFabrega) March 24, 2022
As you can see from the photos above, the top of the wing has ben cut into to allow more air to travel through the car instead of hitting it and increasing drag. This should help Mercedes’ lack of performance in the straights, especially compared to Red Bull and Ferrari who were dominant during Bahrain.
Fans will be eager to see how this affects the cars’ performance at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah. Will this pull Mercedes to the top of the grid once again?
