Mercedes Can ‘Fight for the Championship’ as Improved F1 Challenger Aims for the Stars

Mercedes made a big step up in terms of performance at the recently concluded Spanish Grand Prix. The world champions were certainly closer to Red Bull and Ferrari in both qualifying and race performance.

One of the biggest reasons behind them closing the gap to their rivals was bringing upgrades that reduced porpoising on their car. Mercedes Chief Strategist James Vowles acknowledged that the new upgrades reduced porpoising significantly. But he did not believe that it was a permanent fix to this issue as yet.

James Vowles gives his take on their performance in Barcelona

Vowles stated that one of the reasons that the team performed so well was that they have traditionally done well at the Catalunya Circuit. He revealed that they should not get ahead of themselves, as they were competitive in just one of the first six races of the season.

“We’ve had one race out of six where the car has been well behaved. It was a car that really was a proper racing car for once. We could set it up, we could tune it, we could play around with the settings and it would respond in a way that was predictable, and the same couldn’t be said for the car we had for the first five races of the season,” said James.

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In the post-race debrief on their YouTube channel, Vowles stated that the porpoising issue has not disappeared. They are wary of it and it can return in the upcoming races, although it seemed manageable in Barcelona.

Mercedes Chief Strategist reveals porpoising can return to the W13

Porpoising has been detrimental to the German team’s progress in the 2022 season. They have struggled massively with the issue as compared to many other teams on the grid. In Spain, their car was not porpoising on the straights as much as before, but it was still there in the corners.

“I think it would be wrong to say the porpoising issue has disappeared. I think you still see it on our competitors and I’m sure there will be elements of it coming back again as we build on our understanding and the foundations we laid down in Barcelona… We have a car that’s within touching distance of the front and a car we can fight for a championship with,” said Vowles.

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It is nice to see that the German team has found some fix for their issues in just the nick of time. Hopefully, they can compete at the front of the grid with more consistency and make the championship battle even more interesting.