No shame in copying Red Bull F1 car concept says Mercedes

The team is currently considering a new direction for its W14 car after realizing that its ‘zeropod’ concept is unlikely to achieve the desired performance levels.

Having decided on an alternative approach, Mercedes has mentioned promising results from its CFD and wind tunnel work, which it hopes to utilize in the early stages of the European season.

Although initial changes for Mercedes will focus on the sidepods, the ultimate concept shift will be more comprehensive and involve aspects such as its setup window and ride height.

As most of the grid seems to be adopting the Red Bull downwash concept that fits the current regulations, it is likely that Mercedes will also move in that direction – even if it isn’t an exact replica.

In the past, Mercedes believed that being the fastest in F1 required pioneering its own design concepts. However, Wolff has suggested that the crucial decision now is to simply choose the path that yields the best results.

If this means adopting the Red Bull design, he is clear that the team will do so – even humorously stating that he wouldn’t mind placing a rival’s sticker on the car as credit.

“At this point, we don’t have any preconceptions about what the car should look like,” Wolff explained. “It just needs to be the fastest possible race car.

“If that car resembles a Red Bull or a SpaceX, I don’t care; it just needs to be fast.

“If it’s a Red Bull, we’ll add a little bull sticker somewhere, and I’ll have no shame if it’s fast.”

Wolff suggests that Aston Martin’s experience, which abandoned its initial concept at the start of 2022 in favor of the Red Bull approach, demonstrates the potential for improvements after committing to a change of direction.

“Certainly, what Aston Martin has done shows that, within six or seven months, you can achieve so much lap time that it puts you very much at the front. So that’s good to see.”

“It’s encouraging for all of us to know that you should never write off a season if such steps can be made.”

While much of the focus on the new direction has centered on the sidepods, Wolff says that the crucial factor is the comprehensive approach to where the car is positioned relative to the track and how it is set up.

“The most significant changes we made involve determining where we want to set up the car in its sweet spot,” he said.

“We were too low last year, and too high this year. Now we believe we know where to land.

“Obviously, everything else follows in terms of floor and bodywork that you want to achieve. So I don’t want to sound overly optimistic, but at least we see low-hanging fruit with things that are encouraging.”