Mercedes is considering adopting the high-rake concept for its 2018 single-seater

The team, now a four-time world champion in constructors, has long struggled this season to find the right balance on its long-wheelbase car. This characteristic has allowed the cars of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to be effective on high-speed circuits like Monza and Silverstone, but it has put them in difficulty on slower tracks like Monaco, the Hungaroring, or Singapore.

The engineers, however, believe that the difficulties encountered on tracks with tighter turns are not solely due to the long wheelbase of their car. This is why the adoption of the Red Bull concept, which involves having a car tilted forward, is being thoroughly studied by the German team.

To explain the principle, this design concept involves (with the help of the suspensions) making the single-seater tilt forward. This creates a ground effect with the front guiding the airflow towards the rear diffuser by passing under the single-seater. More air passing theoretically equates to more performance. Integrating the concept into the gray single-seaters could make them more efficient in this setup without having to modify their wheelbase.

But, since 2014 it has been more difficult to achieve this with the addition of titanium plates under the single-seater, preventing it from lowering as much as before. This initially disadvantaged Red Bull, which has since found ways to circumvent the problem.

Initial tests seem to have been conducted last weekend during the practice sessions for the Brazilian Grand Prix, as the team’s mechanics were seen adjusting the suspensions with this in mind.

The sporting director of the Mercedes team, Toto Wolff, also spoke on this subject by stating: « We do not think that what has made our lives more difficult is related to the longer wheelbase. We would like to keep its diva characteristics that we love, but get rid of the difficulties it brings. »

The Austrian also explains that the problem of understanding how the single-seaters work properly is an issue affecting all the teams on the grid: « What you can see across the grid is that many teams struggle to understand why the car works one day and not the next. So there is now a development process in place that allows us to identify the root causes of our difficulties and try to avoid them with next year’s car. Obviously, we are quite far along in the design process of the car. »