Mercedes’ woes from 2022 are no secret. The W13 was bouncing massively on the straights and was low on pace, which made George Russell the star of the year for Mercedes in 2022. In his debut season, which was also the season of regulatory overhaul, despite all the woes of the Mercedes challenger, the Briton delivered consistently and finished P4, right behind Sergio Perez in the drivers’ championship. Russell dealt well with the porpoising and grabbed his chances whenever he could on a problem-ridden W13.

The W13, from its presentation right from Bahrain pre-season testing until the end, didn’t support the drivers as much. The car was presented with the crazy and controversial concept of zero-pod, i.e., no side pods on the car for air intake. And while many thought that they should be replaced or should we say, side pods should be added, Mercedes intends to keep them for next year.

Speaking about the zero-pods on the car as an issue and the development of the new car, Russell told Planet F1, “I think our issues don’t really have a lot to do with the sort of sidepod philosophy. We may be wrong, but I’m quite confident it’s not the reason for our lack of performance this year. To be honest, we’re focused on other features of the car as opposed to the sidepods necessarily.”

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The project seems ambitious, and the team believes it has gotten it right. But if the zero-pods do stay on the Mercedes in 2023 and the performance continues to dip, the team might have a tough call to make.

George Russell welcomes FIA’s help

The porpoising was visible in the early stages of several cars. Several drivers talked about it and shared their plight, most notably Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. And the teams felt helpless, but the FIA decided to step in and suggest measures to curb the bumping on the cars. The changes will come under the 2023 Technical Regulations to protect drivers’ health.

George welcomed the provisions by the FIA, as the issue remained pertinent in the W13 even during the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi. While welcoming the announcement, he talked about the then-current situation with his car and said, “We still had some porpoising this weekend through the high-speed corners, so that wasn’t incredibly pleasant. It probably contributed to why we were further behind Red Bull than we have been in the last two races. The last few races, there were no high-speed corners, so there was no porpoising there.”

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He concluded, “So it’s good that the changes the FIA introduced for next year are still being implemented because it’s clear that porpoising is still hanging around.“

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With provisions coming in and zero-pods staying on, Mercedes might finally narrow down its porpoising problem. How they develop their W14 around the structure of W13 would be a curious case.