Mercedes set for Bahrain F1 upgrade as it chases porpoising solution

The Brackley-based squad was affected this week by the bouncing car phenomenon that struck a number of teams throughout the first pre-season test at Barcelona in Spain.

And, as Autosport’s exclusive photograph below shows, it was only able to overcome the problem on the final day by adding some stiffening stays to its floor to help better manage flexing at high speed that was contributing to its issue.

The team knows that the stays are not a solution that it can carry forward, so much of its focus over the next week will be on revising the car to find a long-term answer to the headache.

But while Lewis Hamilton openly confessed that the team had faced some ‘obstacles’ in Barcelona, it has emerged that the team’s performance in the next Bahrain test is set to be lifted by a potentially major upgrade of aerodynamic parts.

There has even been speculation in the Barcelona paddock that it could include a heavily revised sidepod area to help further reduce the car’s drag on the straight and better manage airflow.

George Russell said that bringing upgrades would be a fairly common thing for the opening phase of the championship as teams better understand the potential of the new regulations.

“I think we'll see it with all the teams,” he said. “We've got this massive regulation change. We've all arrived in Barcelona with our best estimate of where we need to place the car.

“But obviously, there's a lot of things on track that were quite different to what some people may have expected. So, we need to go away and try and optimise from the limitations we've had.

“I think we'll see some changes come Bahrain, and throughout the season. I'm sure the development slope is going to be pretty rapid for everyone. Whoever can get on top of that the quickest and most efficiently will be the ones on top come the end of the season.”

Mercedes W13 stiffened floor

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Mercedes is no stranger to running a base car at the first test and then introducing a more definitive version at the final pre-season run.

In 2019, it introduced a fairly basic car at the opening week of action before unleashing a complete revamp for the second and final test as it went on to secure an F1 championship double.

Although Mercedes ended the Barcelona test 1-2, Russell said that the laptimes meant absolutely nothing in terms of car potential.

“It's been incredibly intriguing and for all of us there's been a lot of unexpected issues, which have been quite visible,” he said.

“Some teams have it quite well under control, and some clearly do not. Lap time wise, I don't think it's representative at all.

“We were obviously on the softest compound of tyres, and the C5 is a very strong tyre around this track. So even though we were on the top of the timesheets, I wouldn't read too much into it.

“I think the Ferrari and McLaren were looking incredibly strong. And I think we've got some improvements to be made as we're not fully happy with the balance of the car and the limitations we have currently.

“But at the end of the day, it is only testing. We're here to learn. And I think we've made some good experiments this week and got a good indication of the direction we need to go in.”