The upgrades Mercedes could bring to Imola to save their F1 season
A critical weekend for Mercedes
The 2023 Emili🌟a Romagna Grand Prix could be the most importanꦰt weekend in Mercedes’ future - in the short term, but also for next year.
Since the season kicked off in early March at the Bahrain International Circuit, Mercedes have been consistent in their message of Imola b♈eing the turning point in their season.
While expectations have been reigned in by 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell in recent weeks, Mercedes are pinning their hop💙es on a substantial upgrade package for the race at Imola.
Me🐼rcedes boss Toto Wolff hopes the upgrade can cure why the Mercedes W14 is so 𝔉“poisonous” to drive.
“I think we are chasing downforce an🌞d we're trying to do the best possible job in terms of the mechanical platform,” Wolff said.
“What we're doing is we're introducing a new bodywork, and we're introducing a new floor and we're doing a new front suspension and that's pretty large. That's a pretty🅷 large operation. Large surgery. It’s going to be a lot of learning in the🅠 virtual world, where it is good lap time.
“That's why the upgrade that we're bring𒐪ing is going to help us to set the direction, and to understand the various areas that we believe could play a role in why the car is so poisonous to drive."
From everything Wo🐟lff and some of Mercedes’ key staff have said in recent weeks, we have a clear indication about what parts specifically they are likely to bring to Imola.
No doubt, had it not been for the cost ca❀p, Mercedes would have developed an entirely new ‘b-spec’ car🐟 for this weekend, but given the financial restrictions they simply can't.
One ke🍸y area that Mercedes have focused on with their development i♉s the front suspension.
The suspension is one area Red Bull have exce⛎lled in with their RB19.
Red Bull’s susp🌳ension design is focused around ‘anti-dive’ under braking and ‘squat’ during acceleration, which allows the car to run closer to the ground.
The clos🅘er a car can run to the ground, the more downforce it has, gaining more lap time as a result.
Consequently, Red Bull are allowedꦏ to run less rear wing meaning 🌠there’s less drag and thus more straight-line speed.
So it’s no surprise Mercedes are foc♎using on the floor and their front suspension given Red Bull’s incredible start to the year.
Mercedes are still 𒊎the only team to be running their own, unique sidepod d💞esign.
With Red Bull enjoying such a sizable advantage oveไr the rest, it’s another area that
Mercedes will likely change at Imola or in the coming races as teams convergಞe towards the reigning world champion’s concept.
Friday at Imola is going to b🔥e a fascinating weekend with a number of teams bringing big✱ upgrades to turn their seasons around.
Besides their own respective competitiveness, let’s hope they work for the goo♉d of the sport in 2023.
A true test of Perez’s mettle
168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Sergio Perez would have been wounded after he was beaten by 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen at the Miami Grand Prix.
It was an important reminder to anyone who thinks Perez is a cr♔edible title contender that he still needs to make another step to contend with Verstappen.
All of Perez’s wins for Red Bull have been at street circuits - Azerbaijan twice, Saudi Ara🌼bia and Singapore.
As pointed out by his own team boss after April’s race in 🎶Baku “he just needs to do it at a normal track now”.
“So he’s excelled at street circuits,” Horner said. “All his victories for us have been at street tracks. Second time he’s won here, won in Singapore, won in𓆉 Monaco, won in Jeddah.
“ཧJust need to g♔et him going at the proper circuits, too.”
With F1 returning to Europe, there’s a numberﷺ of “normal circuits” coming up w🌳ith Imola and Spain.
However, the good news for𝄹 Perez is that Monaco takes place at the end of this month💝.
Can de Vries avoid a ‘red card’?
Since the race in Miami, the pressure has ramped up on 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri.
There has been a raft of speculation about his future with the team, linking the likes of 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson with his seat.
De Vries has struggled considerably in the opening five races of F1 2023 as he has been comprehensively out-pe🎉rformed by teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Red Bull consꦗultant Helmut Marko has said he’s i♛ssued de Vries a ‘yellow card’ - making reference to football where a player is awarded a yellow card following a foul.
A💟 second yellow card re🌜sults in a red and their removal from the game.
It seems that de Vries is on borro📖wed time and quickly n🐼eeds to turn his season around in F1’s triple-header.
New qualifying format for Imola
As confirmed by F1 tyre Pirelli, ther🅘൲e will be a slightly different qualifying format in play this weekend.
For Q1, drivers will only be all🌳owed to run on the white-marked hard tyre, for Q2 it will be the yellow-marked medium, while in Q3꧟, drivers are only allowed to use the soft.
This is being trialled at two events this season t𝐆o cut down on the number of tyres brought to a r♉ace weekend.
It reduces the total allocation for each car from 13 sets t༒o 11 per weekend.
Withܫ a sharp eye for F1’s controversies an🀅d storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
