Explained: How Mercedes’ Promising Upgrades at F1 Miami GP Could Catapult Them Back Into the Game

Mercedes haven’t had the most competitive start to the 2022 season. For the first time since 2011, the Brackley-based outfit has to score a pole position or win a race yet. The last four rounds have been painful for eight-time constructors’ champions; as they try to figure out solutions in a bid to be more competitive. 

But coming into the Miami weekend, rumors were abuzz that Mercedes would be bringing upgrades to the W13. The upgrades seem to be working as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished P1 and P4 respectively at Free Practice 2.

Mercedes bring upgrades to Miami GP

Starting from the back of the car, Mercedes has a new rear wing. Since the Miami track features long straights; the team has brought a low-drag rear wing to claw back some speed. Moreover, there have also been updates to the beam wing by making it smaller. This would now also provide low drag and higher straight-line speeds.

In the FIA document, Mercedes explained about the new rear wing, “This rear wing configuration provides reduced downforce and reduced drag based on circuit simulations, this is likely to be preferred over our higher downforce option which has been used at the first four races of the season.” 

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Perhaps the more interesting details of the updates are on the front wing of the car. With porpoising being the issue, it was clear to the team that it has to manage this issue so that it runs the W13 at a lower ride height.

The front wing features a new endplate with a smaller chord vertical tip elements. This results in higher front wing efficiency, by reducing the pressure difference between the top and bottom surfaces at the wingtip. 

Several directions to solve the porpoising issue 

The German car manufacturer feels like they have found several directions to extract more performance from the car. As the updates are mentioned above, all of these trials are being done in order to let them run the car at a lower ride height. 

Team boss Toto Wolff says that Imola gave them an idea on how to solve the issues and concentrate their efforts. He explained that Italy helped them to learn as much as possible on track but also to understand the wind tunnel and simulations. 

“We have found several directions for improving the car, and we will be conducting experiments in Miami to correlate those simulations, and hopefully confirm the development path for the coming races.”

Toto also explained that despite the disappointing results; the team is very resilient and is taking a methodical approach to getting to the core of issues. 

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