Mercedes turned heads at the start of 2022 with their zero-sidepod W13. However, heads soon started turning the other way when they realized it wasn’t a title contender. While the W14 initially carried over the concept, an upgrade package at Monaco changed things. Mercedes switched to a wider sidepod with a downwash-style ramp, like most of its Formula 1 rivals, including Red Bull. However, it couldn’t afford to be as aggressive as them. The new upgrades at the Belgian GP further confirm that these are just stopgap solutions.
Why can’t Mercedes be more aggressive with their sidepods?
Mercedes’ upper Side Impact Structure (SIS) and its fairing have made life difficult for the team. Changes to this area would require an entirely new chassis. This is simply not possible in the cost-cap era of Formula 1.
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However, Mercedes have made as many changes as they could around their existing SIS fairings. In Spain, they removed a mirror slat. In Canada, the vortex generators they had went from 4 to 3. With the Belgian GP upgrade, these have been removed entirely.
What are the Belgian GP upgrades?
Like Red Bull at the Hungarian GP, Mercedes have claimed their updates serve more reliability purposes than aerodynamic. This means that some of the internal ducts must have undergone changes as well. The inlet has gone from looking like a box to more like a scoop out of a cylinder.
This change directly leads to a change in the layout of the undercut, which should improve airflow. The rear end of the sidepods has changed as well. The flank of the ramped section has become more concave. The section also drops down more suddenly now, engaging with the airflow better. The engine cover’s camber has also been modified to suit these changes.
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What else?
Mercedes also said that have made slight changes to the floor of the W14. They have made alterations to the underfloor’s volume distribution. This should help improve airflow to the diffuser. You can see a visible change regarding this in the floor’s scroll section. In the corner at the front, the number of strakes has gone down from 3 to 2.
Mercedes introduced a new rear wing for the W14 as well. Only Lewis Hamilton was given this rear wing at the Belgian GP. The new wing is much shallower and has a mainplane shaped like a spoon. The upper flap’s trailing edge has been shortened. Overall, it takes a smaller space in the box region you get for the mainplane and upper flap. The DRS pods and the wing’s mounting pillars have a different shape as well. It is to be noted that this read wing didn’t lead to a significant difference in the speed traps.
Will Mercedes be able to catch Red Bull this season? Will the W15 be a title contender? Keep following to find out.
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