Mercedes with the “final phase” of its aerodynamic development in Austin

The final four events of the 2022 Formula 1 season will begin with the United States Grand Prix in Austin, before making stops in Mexico and then Brazil, to culminate in a now customary final on the Abu Dhabi side. Here are the last four chances that Mercedes will have left to try and grab at least one win this season, after having more or less smelled it at Silverstone, Budapest or Zandvoort.

For this, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton will have a series of evolutions in Texas that are announced as the last of the season in terms of aerodynamics, and some of which will also aim to continue the weight loss treatment of the W13. “This will be our final stage of aerodynamic development and hopefully it will give us a little more performance. But most importantly, with each stage we learn more and more and these lessons can continue into the next year.”Andrew Shovlin explained.

Then, the technical manager of the Mercedes track added: “So it’s a part [des évolutions d’Austin], but there are also some things where we took weight off the components that will hopefully bring the car closer to the weight limit. It is very difficult for us to predict where we will be. “

“In Singapore Lewis was terribly close to pole position, but at Suzuka both cars were very far from the lead. But our race pace was quite solid, so if we can make a step forward we could fight with the Ferraris and the Reds. Bull. However, qualifying at the moment is very difficult to predict, as I said it is about learning and we will certainly give our best in the last four races ”.

Traditionally bumpy, the Austin circuit has seen many surface resurfaces in recent years, particularly in the face of criticism from MotoGP riders. So can this track really play on Mercedes’ strengths rather than its weaknesses? “It’s a difficult circuit and it was a difficult circuit for us last year”remembers Shovlin. “It was very bumpy, there was also a lot of overheating of the tires and we weren’t doing as well as the Red Bull with the softer tires.”

“They’ve done some resurfacing, so hopefully those bump issues will be a little less, but the really tough thing this year is really knowing what level you’ll be on this circuit before you go. Just be there and […] a lot is about learning. We will not really make any predictions on our performance, we just have to get out on the track on Friday, see what kind of problems we will have and then see if we can solve them with the settings. “