The team had another tough weekend at the Miami Grand Prix as they struggled in practice and qualifying before making encouraging progress in the race.
However, the team admits that the roller-coaster format W14 was on display made it impossible to see exactly what went wrong.
Plus: How Verstappen beat Perez in Miami
For the next race at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Mercedes will roll out a major update that includes changes to the sidepods, floorpan and front suspension.
While the team hopes the new kit will be a step forward in form, boss Toto Wolff believes that, more critically, the changes should help address some of the problems with the current car.
Wolff does not expect a drastic change in Imola’s fortunes, but believes the knowledge gained could be significant in the long run.
“We need to manage our own expectations because we’re bringing an update package that will include new suspension parts, bodywork and a few other things,” he said.
“But in my 15 years in F1, I’ve never seen a panacea introduced where you suddenly unlock half a second of performance. So, I very much doubt that’s going to happen here.
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“But what I’m looking forward to is that we take certain variables off the table and we believe we can introduce something into the car that we don’t understand.
“(I hope) we can move more towards a stable platform and then we should look at where the baseline is and what we can do from there.”
Asked what variables Mercedes would like to remove, Wolff said: “I think we’re chasing downforce, we’re trying to be the best we can in terms of mechanical platforms.
“What we’re doing is bringing in a new body, bringing in a new floor, we’re doing a new front suspension, which is pretty big. It’s a pretty big operation. Big surgery. It’s going to be in the It’s a good lap time to learn a lot in the virtual world.”
Wolff said it was vital to learn from what happened at Imola as the team neared the time it needed to start working on major components of the 2024 car.
“That’s why the upgrades we’re bringing will help us set the course and understand various areas that we think might play a role in why cars are so toxic to drive,” he said.
Ideally, Fernando Alonso would win the Monaco Grand Prix. However, he quickly relinquished his second-place finish after the race, which is Aston Martin’s best finish of the season so far. The Spanish driver was in a good mood and spontaneously decided to join the Red Bull Racing Team for a group photo.
But with Sergio Perez nowhere to be seen in comparison, what went wrong? How did Esteban Ocon achieve such great results? Can Aston Martin really fight for the title if Lance Stroll can’t keep up with Alonso?
Martyn Lee sat down with Matt Kew live in Monaco to answer these questions and more.
The weekend in Monaco has not been a dream weekend for Ferrari, but Frederic Vassell is trying to stay positive after Sunday’s race. Carlos Sainz’s spin and dropping some points was unfortunate for the team boss and Maranello, but he doesn’t blame his driver for it.