“Not possible” for Mercedes to switch to Red Bull’s high-rake F1 car concept
Merced💦es Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff concedes that it is “physically not possible” for his team to switch to a high-rakꦿe concept pioneered by rivals Red Bull.
Wolff confirmed early suspicions 🐼from pre-season testing in Bahrain that the aerodynamic rule changes introduced for 2021 to reduce downforce and slow the cars dow💮n have appeared to penalise the teams running a lower-rake concept.
Mercedes has traditionally run its car at a low-rake - meaning its car is closer to the ground - and speaking ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday, Wolff revealed that the tea🏅m’s analysis shows that cars running higher-rake concepts have lost less downforce over the winter.
“We probably suffered more with the change of regulations than the cars with the higher rake, and Red Bull has followed that concept since many y♒ears,” Wolff said.
“It has been maybe more difficult for us to recover some of the lost downforce but so far from what I have se🤡en and hope is that we can have a really tough fight. This is what the fans want to see, and what we would like to have.
“♒Red B♉ull is a formidable team, with people pushing really hard. They have one for championships before the hybrid power units came in, and no doubt they are the strongest competitor.”
Mercedes 𓆉endured a troubled pre-season test that was hampered by reliability gremlins and instability issues with the rear-end of its updated W12 challe🌄nger.
The reigning world champion squad believes that a combination of running a lower-r🦩ake, along with new tyre constructions for 2021, has prevented the team from getting a full understanding of how to maximisꦗe its latest F1 car.
And Wolff confirmed that Mercedes is now stuck with its rake approach and🐠 will simply need to get the “best out of it” throughout the 2021 season.
“In the last year of these regulations, we wouldn’t be able to replicate the concept that Rꦡed Bull and some of the other teams have been ra𓂃cing,” he explained.
"It’s physica🥂lly not possible, we couldn’t run our suspensions and setting in the way tha🌟t Red Bull does.
“So we need to do the besဣt out of it and tune the car with what we ha𒉰ve available.”
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