Mercedes Using April Break To Bring Suspension Upgrades To W14 Ahead Of Azerbaijan GP
It's all systems go for the Mercedes Formula One team during the sport's April break, as they work hard to give Lewis Hamilton and George Russell a more balanced car with improved suspension. Technical head James Allison has promised fans that the team will be working "flat out" to make these improvements, which should make for a more competitive team when racing resumes in Azerbaijan on April 30.
Both Hamilton and Russell have voiced their frustrations with the car, with Hamilton saying that he doesn't "feel connected" to it, while Russell has referred to it as a "lame horse". But with the team working hard to improve the car's balance and downforce, fans can look forward to a better performance from the team in the upcoming races.
In addition to working on the car's downforce, the team will also be bringing in some new mechanical parts, including different suspension components that will help to improve the car's underlying balance and make it more driveable.
The upcoming race in Baku will be the first of six sprint weekends this year, with plans being discussed to limit practice to just one Friday session. Allison emphasised that it will be important for the team to hit the ground running in these sprint races, as time is compressed and teams will need to have their starting setups dialed in and ready to go for qualifying.
While Hamilton managed to secure a podium finish in Australia with second place, Russell suffered a mechanical failure after starting from second behind Max Verstappen. Despite this setback, Allison felt that the team had closed the gap slightly to Red Bull and are hopefully ahead of Aston Martin and Ferrari.
The chief technical officer explained in a team debrief:
"We are working as hard as we can in the wind tunnel to find more downforce, we will be working as hard as we can in the drawing office to convert the things that the wind tunnel found a few weeks ago into performance that we deliver to the track.
"We will be working in the drawing office also to bring some mechanical parts to the car, some different suspension components that we think will help the underlying balance of the car and make it a more driveable thing.
"Sprint races really reward the teams that can land there with a starting setup that is pretty on the money and ready to go in qualifying because the time is really compressed in a sprint race weekend,"