Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin has revealed that the Silver Arrows are “open-minded” about the concept of their cars going forward, with the outfit “not clinging” to their current design philosophy.
The Brackley-based team are already on their current design concept since the start of 2022, after scrapping their ‘zero-sidepod’ concept at the Monaco Grand Prix earlier in the season.
At the Circuit de Monaco, Mercedes introduced a more traditional style of sidepod, following feedback from George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Both drivers have been very vocal to the media this season in regard to what the team must do to improve, with Hamilton having urged Mercedes to put all their focus onto 2024.
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The seven-time World Champion publicly criticised the side at the start of the season for not listening to his feedback, something which has clearly since happened given that they’ve developed a philosophy to his liking.
At times, Hamilton’s and Russell’s feedback has appeared to vary, although Shovlin has insisted that the two drivers are aligned in what is needed to improve looking ahead to 2024.
Their biggest concern is the car being unsettled through high-speed corners, something which has led to a lack of confidence in the W14 over fears that the rear will slide out.
Whilst the team do finally have somewhat of a development plan, Mercedes aren’t overly bothered about whether they continue with the current philosophy or switch to a third different design next year.
Ultimately, the Silver Arrows are just “working very hard” to return to the front of the field.
“Lewis and George together are always giving us feedback on where the weakness is,” said Shovlin, as reported by Crash.net.
“And whilst they might be identifying different causes of it, we know that, fundamentally, the car doesn’t have enough stability.
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“We know that they don’t have the confidence to just throw it into a high-speed corner, and not have some concern that the rear is going to slide more than they want and be a bit of a challenge.
“Whilst you might see different comments in the press, the two of them are very aligned on where the weaknesses are, and where we need to improve it. We can see the GPS from other cars and that all ties in. So, you can build a picture of where you need to develop.
“And we’re certainly not clinging on to any concepts that we have had before. We’re very open-minded.
“We’ve had a pretty chastening couple of years, and we are a team that’s working very hard to try and get back to the front.”