Mercedes told ‘easiest solution’ to Lewis Hamilton and George Russell car troubles

Lewis Hamilton refuses to let 2021 season ‘define’ his career

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Sky Sports F1 expert Ted Kravitz has told of Mercedes’ “easiest solution” to solve the issues they were having with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s cars during pre-season testing in Barcelona.

Many teams encountered trouble with their cars porpoising – which means they are bobbling up and down while being driven in a straight line.

Changes to regulations this year has forced manufacturers into making huge changes to their 2022 vehicles, which has caused some teething problems.

Russell complained that the porpoising issue could be a “safety concern” if not fixed before the first race in Bahrain.

Kravitz has come up with a quick-fix – but it could have a detrimental effect on Hamilton’s title charge.

“The easiest solution is to manipulate the ride height a bit, but that will cost them so much performance that teams really do not want to do that,” Kravtiz told Sky Sports F1.

“So they need to start on a fairly detailed research and rectification programme on what bits of the floor they need to cut out, or what bits of the vent they need to put where, or what they can do stop the aerodynamics choking the floor and then suddenly releasing.”

Russell raised his concerns after testing his new Mercedes in Barcelona.

“I think you can see some quite substantial issues with the cars in the straights with the bottoming,” Russell said.

“So this is a compromise we need to find to go quickest around the lap. It’s something I don’t think any team has experienced before. We’re seeing some interesting things out there.”

He added: “I think it has the potential to be a real safety concern if it gets out of control.

“If you’re flat out down the straight and it starts to happen, you don’t want to back off in a race scenario.

“We saw with Charles [Leclerc’s] video just how bad it was for them [Ferrari], so I think we will need to find a solution.”

Russell also suggested a fix that his team could make.

“I think it’s clear if we had active suspension, the cars would be a hell of a lot faster for the same aerodynamic surfaces, because you’d be able to optimise the ride heights for every corner speed, and optimise it down the straight for the least amount of drag,” he said.

“That’s an easy way to make the cars go faster, and if you’re thinking of a safety aspect, then potentially… I’m sure there are more limitations, I’m not an engineer, but we wouldn’t have this issue down the straight, that’s for sure.”

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