Mercedes ‘not just looking to bring lap time’ with Imola F1 update
Mercedes are expected to introduce a raft of new parts for this weekend’s event at Imola in a bid to turn their season around.
The eight-time champions have scored just one podium in the opening five rounds of F1 2023.
Mercedes have even dropped behind customer team Aston Martin in the pecking order.
After a sluggish start to the year, Mercedes have decided to go down a “different development direction” starting with their Imola upgrade.
“The Imola package are the first steps in that direction,” Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director said. “We are hoping to bring other updates later in the year.
“We do hope that it is quicker, we hope that it’s better in terms of qualifying and race pace.
“The key thing though is that we are not just looking to bring a lap time update, we are looking to head off in a different development direction.
“One that we think gives us a better chance in the long term of being able to challenge for race wins and world championships.”
Shovlin revealed that Mercedes knew from as early as pre-season testing that their car wasn’t at the level to fight Red Bull for the championship.
“If we go all the way back to the test and race in Bahrain, that was where we realised that we didn’t have a package that was going to allow us to fight for a world championship,” Shovlin added.
“If we continued on that same development direction, we wouldn’t end up in a position where we felt we could challenge Red Bull.
“It was around that time that we took some decisions on how we develop the car, how the car works aerodynamically, and how we shape the characteristics of the car.
“In essence, how it is in terms of handling for the drivers to drive. What we are going to be bringing to the track in Imola is the first step of that work.
“This takes quite a long time to develop in the wind tunnel and you can’t just do these things overnight.”
