Lewis Hamilton has revealed Mercedes had to remove “90 points of downforce” from its 2022 Formula 1 car to control the bouncing with the current ground effect machines.
Mercedes entered the latest regulations as the reigning eight-time consecutive Constructors’ Championships, but it has taken just one win across the last three seasons.
The German marque had surprised the whole paddock when it unveiled an aggressive interpretation of the rules with a ‘zero sidepod’ concept at the second pre-season test.
However, Mercedes would endure problems across the season with the porpoising phenomenon that prevented it from extracting the same performance as its simulations.
While the issue – where cars bottomed out under aerodynamic load, thus stalling the aero before loading again – has been tempered, Mercedes has endured bouncing in 2024.
When asked whether he had experienced a problem which was so difficult to get on top of, Hamilton said: “Well, 2009 [with McLaren] was probably the last time we knew that was not particularly a great car initially. But we knew what that was, they just designed the car with too little downforce and set the targets too low.
“During this era, I mean, it’s been really interesting to see the tools in which the team have had to develop to understand the flow structures underneath the floor. So much more technical and complex than the previous generation of car. And when you’re seeing these images that they’re able to create now, you can see where the flow structures are going.
“But then having the correlation between the wind tunnel and CFD to the actual track and the different surfaces that we’re going to, it’s quite interesting to see and you understand why it’s so difficult to get it to work.
“And then the stiffness of the tyres, stiffness of the suspension, roll, all these different things and all these different positions that you put the car through and yaw and all those different things. I think we’re constantly facing an uphill battle.”
Hamilton has disclosed that Mercedes had substantial untapped potential in its first iteration ground effect car that it was unable to utilise due to the porpoising case.
The rules challenge teams to strike a compromise with running their cars as close to the ground as possible, with a rise in ride height coming at the expense of lap time.
“I think, the Red Bulls fixed it pretty much on their first test in Bahrain last year,” the Briton continued.
“They just managed to fix it and then I think once the issue was gone, you could just build from then on as well.
“The first race in 2022 or test, we had to take something like 90 points of downforce off the car. So we had downforce but we couldn’t utilise it because the thing was going and bouncing.
“So we lost a huge amount of performance and every time we add more or try and add it back back then, then the thing would bounce again.
“So every time we take one or two sets forward, it’d take five back. It’s been hugely frustrating, I think, for the engineers.
“But I think what’s been inspiring is that they’ve just not given up. They’re continuing to show up every day and give it their best and that’s all you can ever ask.”
Despite having moved past the ‘zeropod’ solution with a more conventional concept on the W15, Mercedes has encountered its worst start to an F1 season since 2012.
A double retirement in Australia has resigned the squad to languishing fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, with Hamilton having amassed a total of eight points.
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