When Mercedes rolled out a different sidepod solution than everyone else, there was a lot of buzz among their fans as well as their rivals. Unfortunately, the buzz was short-lived, and the Brackley-based outfit struggled much of the first half of the season. However, Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director believes that their unique sidepod solution had little to do with their poor performance.

Lewis Hamilton’s strength was really tested after the race in Baku this year. The Briton suffered extreme back pain because of W13’s porpoising issues. As a result, Hamilton was unsure if he could race next week in Canada. Thankfully for Mercedes, those days are well behind them.

Moreover, Andrew Shovlin defended their rather different approach to rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. He revealed that the team never really worried much about its different sidepod solution since it was not affecting the performance by much. Additionally, the Silver Arrows felt it was better to explore their own ideas and development rather than copy other teams.

Shovlin said, “The sidepod concept was something that we had to commit to anyway for the year realistically. But if we’d been more focused on just trying to find a quick fix, we may have been copying and rolling it out and seeing what it does.”

“The goal for us though was always to try and understand it ourselves and learn and find our own path, because if you want to win, and you want to win races and world championships, you don’t get there by copying everyone else’s design.”

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The Silver Arrows endured a tough season. Fortunately for them, things started to work out once they reached the root of W13’s problems.

Mercedes chief reveals the major turning point in solving W13’s problems this season

One of the major turning points in the season, according to Andrew Shovlin, was the Spanish GP this year. George Russell finished on the podium behind the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Moreover, Hamilton also managed to finish P5 behind Carlos Sainz. Shovlin revealed Mercedes took big steps towards the development of their car that weekend.

Shovlin stated on Mercedes’ YouTube channel, “Barcelona was the one where we made the biggest step in getting on top of the aero-bouncing phenomenon.”

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He further mentioned, “We were able to have pretty good performance but also it allowed us to see that once we solved that issue, there were still other issues to solve with the ride of the car, it wasn’t very good over the bumps. It gave us the clarity to work on those next steps.”

The British engineer stated that despite it being a small win, it was an important update in the right direction for the Silver Arrows.

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Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will hope that the next season will be better than the one they endured. Moreover, they will also want to challenge Red Bull and Ferrari. Can the Silver Arrows turn the tables around and compete for race wins again?