Mercedes F1 team currently finds themselves in a no-man’s-land. They are not quick as Ferrari and Red Bull at the front and are certainly a bit faster than the midfield pack of McLaren, Alfa Romeo, and the rest.

One of the most probable reasons that they are clearly lacking in performance compared to the front runners is in the design of their sidepods. But team principal Toto Wolff is still confident that the ‘no sidepods’ design is still the right way forward for them.

The German team ran a different-looking sidepods in the preseason Barcelona test to what they are running right now. So when asked if the team will switch to the Barcelona spec ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, Wolff gave a very prompt reply.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff is adamant that the current sidepods design works for them

The Austrian mentioned the team is still gathering data on their car and on the airflow from the sidepods. He also revealed that they might reassess the design after the Spanish GP.

“I would be asking ourselves to get an answer after Barcelona because that’s the real correlation we have. And by then we will look at ourselves in the mirror and say, did we get it wrong or not?” said Wolff.

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But he hinted that there is a possibility that they can switch to the Barcelona sidepods if needed in the future this season. “Well, I wouldn’t discount anything, but we need to give all of our people who have produced great racecars in the past the benefit of the doubt, and we believe this is the route to go down,” said the Mercedes team boss.

Why Do Mercedes Dominate F1?

As Wolff mentioned, the German manufacturers have all the data regarding both specifications of sidepods. They know what best works for them and would change to Barcelona sidepods if they felt they can gain performance.

But their fans would hope for Mercedes to switch sidepods. They have enough time in the championship to mount a comeback. Currently, they have shown no signs of improvement in the races and have been having mixed weekends. Let’s see what Barcelona has in store for Mercedes.

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