Mercedes still has “far, far more” updates to introduce across the remainder of the 2022 Formula 1 season, according to its strategy director James Vowles.
The team has had the third-fastest car across the season so far, comfortably behind Ferrari and Red Bull but clear of the midfield, having pursued a design that includes a ‘zero sidepod’ concept that has routinely been questioned in light of its deficit to the leading two teams.
While some other teams with relatively leftfield sidepod concepts have moved closer in style to Red Bull’s design as they introduced upgrades, Mercedes has stuck with its concept.
Asked in Mercedes’ French Grand Prix debrief video if the upgrades it brought to Paul Ricard, which included a modified curvature of the floor and a revised cooling route for the front brakes, had made a difference, Vowles said the team would continue to introduce new parts that inch it closer to Ferrari and Red Bull each time.
“In terms of the upgrades themselves, yes, they are incremental steps, they’re small steps that we’re adding to the car but the important point is that we have plans to introduce far, far more across the races that follow,” said Vowles.
“We’re not going to be able in one go to just catch up and be with Ferrari and Red Bull.
“But hopefully as you’ve seen across the season so far, we are incrementally closing that gap down and we have more to come.”
Vowles’ comments suggest Mercedes will persist with development of the W13 rather than switching focus early to its 2023 car.
As part of the same question, Vowles was asked about the difference in pace Mercedes is capable of in races compared to practice and qualifying sessions.
Lewis Hamilton was nine tenths of a second from pole in qualifying for the French GP in the fastest of the Mercedes, which has difficulty generating tyre temperature over a single lap. The car was closer to six tenths from the ultimate pace in the race.
Vowles said the team preferred that performance trade-off as it ensured the car is more competitive over a longer distance, but added it would be crucial for Hamilton and George Russell to be “there or thereabouts” in qualifying this weekend at the Hungaroring, a track where overtaking is more difficult.
“Why are we a little bit more offset in free practice one and two, even qualifying there is a large gap to the front and we’re more in the midfield with the McLaren [Lando Norris] outqualifying George, but in the race the car just seems to transform?” said Vowles.
“It’s a valid observation, it’s one that’s been there all year. It’s not through necessarily design – we didn’t plan to be that offset in qualifying – but the reality is we’d much prefer to have the fast race car we have at the moment.
“The race is over 50-plus laps and having a car that is competitive on all of those gives you opportunities and we’ve typically been able to move back forward through the race into a strong position.
“That said, we’d obviously prefer to be more competitive in qualifying. There is going to be some tracks like Budapest that are going to cause us issues and we need to make sure that we are really there or thereabouts to make sure that we don’t have a number of other teams between ourselves and Ferrari and Red Bull.”
Expanding on that, when asked whether the double podium achieved by Hamilton and Russell at Paul Ricard made the team optimistic about its chances at the Hungaroring, where Hamilton has won eight times, Vowles reiterated that Mercedes still had a big deficit to Ferrari and Red Bull.
“We are not where we need to be yet to be winning, that’s the short answer to it, especially for example on qualifying pace and Hungary will expose that weakness somewhat,” he said.
“We are realistic, we have made steps forward and I can see progress and we can see progress for how we are going to move forward again across the next few races but in Budapest we have to be realistic.
“Where we are with this car is a strong race car but we may not be able to use all of it in the conditions that are presented to us and we need to do a better job than we have been doing to make sure we are qualifying where the car should be, towards the front.”
