Toto Wolff questioned on Mercedes’ controversial sidepod issue

From nowhere, McLaren were faster than everyone except Red Bull in qualifying for the F1 British Grand Prix, then backed it up with 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris finishing second.
Their upgraded MCL60 was likened to a Red Bull by168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff.
It is a different concept to the one that Mercedes threw 🍰their weight behind at the beginning of the yea🤡r, and Wolff has again been questioned if his team will follow suit and use the same design that works so well for their rivals.
“We had the sidepod concept and the bodywork in the tunnel very early on already to see whichꦐ avenues it would open up,” the Mercedes team principal said.
“And how much♛ it would add to performance, and the relative loss of downforce, the way we measure it, was substantial.
“So it’s not something we wanted🐓 to follow up earlier in the year. 𓃲;
“Will we change our design direction? I think we have a great group of aerodynamicists, led by James [Allison], and I’m sure it will be a consideration seeing the st🐟ep they [McLaren] did.
“The sidepods and the bodywork are just one part of the chassis and 🤪clearly it looks like there are i🌳nteresting solutions that open up.
“But most of the performan🔯ce comes from the floor and the diffuser and we haven’t seen how they’ve interpreted the regulations and how they’ve done it.&nb𒀰sp;
“So in my opinion, it’s just the package.
“We see that the strong cars all look a little💜 bi🎉t the same when you look from the side and from top down.
“Certainly that has playeไd in our minds already back in the🐎 day, but maybe that’s just a little more indication where it goes.”

Wolff was asked ൲how important wind ꩲtunnel and CFD time is to developing the W14.
“I didn’t want to refer at all the reasons for the performance to the w꧑ind tunnel time, I just think it’s just good engine๊ering, good decisions, work well together on the right track,” he answered.
“We need to see whether they can repeat that performance in Budapest, which is obvious✤ly the opposite in what you need.
“But this sport is about marginal gains. If you have 20 percent more wind tunnel time and allocation and you🧸 gain two seconds over the year, that means four tenths or fifth teams in additional performance, which is always going to help.
“But still, we need to have the right innovation and design it the right way, put it on the car and🦩 it needs to correlate with the car and the wind tunnel. So chapeau!”
F1 returns in Hungary on July 23 where McLaren will be hoping 🙈to remain ahead of Mercedes.

James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade c♈overing everything from American sports, to football, to F1.