Mercedes’ zeropods were the talk of the F1 paddock when they debuted in Bahrain last year. By 2023, every other team adopted something similar to the downwash-style sidepods pioneered by Red Bull and Adrian Newey. Mercedes, under Mike Elliott, stuck to their guns, hoping that their design philosophy would unlock more performance.
Were Mercedes right?
Mercedes achieved their zeropod design by changing the location of their side-impact bars and isolating the chassis. This was supposed to reduce overall drag and give a lot more downforce. Some suggest that the zeropod design was actually slightly better (0.1 seconds).
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So why did it not work?
Reports, and Mercedes’ on-track struggles, suggest that the zeropods have a lot of other consequences on the package. This leaves the car more vulnerable, and more importantly, slow. The concept chosen by Red Bull and Adrian Newey also has a higher development potential. This means that while they start slower, once they get a grip on the concept, the gains become greater.
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Why did they not change it over the winter? What prompted the change now?
Mike Elliott says Mercedes saw the potential gain in time and chose to stick with the concept. Like the upgrades in Monaco, the sidepods didn’t offer any immediate benefit in performance. Therefore, switching to the new concept would have resulted in 2 scenarios. The first scenario was the team didn’t gain any speed. The second scenario was the team lost speed.
The reason Mercedes chose to finally bite the bullet mid-season was to remove any doubts regarding their package. Mercedes could only find the answers by actually putting the new concept onto their car and running with it.
The first change in Monaco didn’t lead to any substantial increase in performance. However, the team’s latest upgrades in Belgium did. This gives immense hope to a team looking to get to the top of F1 again. Moreover, having had to question themselves and swallow their pride will hold them in good stead going forwards.
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