Red Bull is not unattainable. It is the message that Mercedes has been sending constantly in recent days. The German team took a great leap forward at the Spanish Grand Prix and confirmed it in Canada, getting on the podium in both races.
This revolution is mainly due to the package of improvements that they launched in Monaco, with which they definitively renounced their peculiar design without sidepods.
Now, Mercedes sees the option of fighting for victories much closer. In fact, from Brackley they assure that they will be able to do it in the final part of the season. To do this, they will introduce improvements in the Great Britain Grand Prix, which will be held in Silverstone between July 7 and 9.
Both Mercedes and Aston Martin are cutting into Red Bull’s lead, which was crushing in the opening races. However, no one understood what the key to the energy drink team’s superiority was.
At first it was believed that it was due to the effectiveness of his DRSbut the teams have managed to evolve the rear wing and be just as fast on the straight as the RB19 and the Austrians have continued to dominate.
Therefore, many engineers and experts began to suspect that Red Bull was getting a great advantage with the flat bottom. In Monaco, ‘Checo’ Pérez’s accident allowed the photographers to capture the floor of the Mexican’s car, and it was not as spectacular as expected. At least, that’s what James Allison, Mercedes technical director, believes.
The key was not on the ground
“For you to discover the Red Bull soil well, you have to tinker a lot in the wind tunnel. You can see from Monaco the love and care that has gone into that part of the car, but I don’t think there is any team in the pit lane that has thrown their hands up. not amazing“Allison explained.
The British engineer assures that taking a look at the floor of the RB19 It is not enough to draw big conclusions: “There are things about that flat bottom in which we are interested, but I did not have that feeling that you have when you see it. I do not know who from Red Bull spoke about it, but he tells the truth when he talks about what it will not change the luck of the teams that watch and copy. It’s interesting, but you need to go into more detail to get really valuable information.”
Allison assures that, with the improvements introduced, Mercedes is building a solid foundation to fight for the title next season: “We are quite excited for 2024. I like the process we’ve been through. We presented a car with which we were quite unhappy with its performance, but instead of crying, we have worked on the weak points.”
But Mercedes is not satisfied with winning in 2024 and they want to achieve some victory this year. “If we continue like this, we are going to have fun in 2023 and off camera, we are going to continue working and next year’s car will be very promising,” Allison concluded.
