Mercedes looks at to competition for solutions: 'Including Red Bull'

F1 News

23 September 2022 at 12:34
Last update 23 September 2022 at 16:50
  • GPblog.com

Mercedes has had a tough season. After years of dominance, the team has still not won a race this year. Mercedes is busy developing the 2023 car, also looking at other teams, including Red Bull Racing, for solutions.

Mercedes impressed at the start of the season with a striking design. Namely, the W13 had extremely narrow sidepods. The car has since been rebuilt, with the sidepods being a mix of the Red Bull and the Ferrari. Engineer Mike Elliott admits the team struggled to get the Mercedes' aerodynamics right. "We are looking at numerous different variants for solving the shape of the sidepods, including Red Bull's version," he is quoted by Speedweek.com.

According to the Mercedes engineer, it would be foolish to deny that the team has gone down the wrong path. Mercedes has been looking for solutions for months, looking at different teams."There is not only Red Bull's concept, because there are many interesting solutions in the pit lane. We find many things interesting and are looking at it carefully."

Mercedes is looking at Red Bull

The team is therefore open to everything. Whether it will continue with the current design for 2023 is not yet clear, possibly the team will change its philosophy completely. In any case, Elliott is trying to understand the competition's approach. "Take a side pod like Red Bull's and ask yourself: why did they do that? You can always learn something from that."