P1racenews AI automatic summary:
It was clear very early on that Mercedes’ 2023 F1 car was another dud. Returning technical director James Allison explains how pushing the FIA to eliminate porpoising created a situation his team then failed to exploit to its own benefit
Mercedes technical director James Allison acknowledges that the wrong decisions were made when designing the W14, as evidenced by the team’s failure to win any races or the world championship in 2023. He points to the previous year’s car, which suffered from aerodynamic instability called porpoising due to too much downforce near the ground. Mercedes eventually fixed this issue but ended up with a car that had less downforce near the ground. The team continued in the same direction with the W14 rather than transforming the concept, but faced a curveball with rule changes introduced to address porpoising. There was internal debate about whether to cash in on the decrease in bouncing by lowering the car or continue searching for downforce at higher ride heights. These rules didn’t reward high up downforce, making it difficult to find.
