Why Mercedes isn't the benchmark

Bahrain wasn't a one-off. Mercedes still have a major flaw on their 2022 challenger.

Bahrain proves Formula 1’s running order is shaken up, and that Mercedes is no longer at the top of it.

The team’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin was blunt in his post-Bahrain assessment.

“We don’t have a car to fight for pole or race wins.”

The reigning World Constructors Champions only have the third quickest car on the grid right now, behind Ferrari and Red Bull.

The pace difference was on show again in practice for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Mercedes finished Friday’s second session in fifth and sixth, while the top four spots were occupied by Ferrari and Red Bull.

“We still have many of the same problems we had in the last race,” Lewis Hamilton said. Teammate George Russell said Mercedes has a lot of work to do to reach Ferrari and Red Bull.

Shovlin, the trackside engineering director, said they tried more experiments to understand their problem. Some experiments made the problem worse, some helped, Shovlin said.

“But we don't yet have a solution to make the problem go away.”

So, what exactly is wrong?

Mercedes is struggling with porpoising - when cars bottom out at high speed and bounce up and down on their suspension.

After Friday practice in Saudi Arabia, Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes still have many of the same problems the team faced in Bahrain.

This is a new issue related to the updated technical regulations. It happens when cars are run too low - and it will affect performance.

But, teams are always trying to run cars low, because the lower you run it, the more downforce and grip it produces. But, in 2022, if teams run cars too low, this is when the bouncing starts.

The secret to good performance is finding that delicate balance.

In last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Shovlin said Mercedes ran their car high to avoid porpoising, but in the end, this led to them simply lacking overall grip and pace. This, Shovlin said, was the team’s “main issue”.

Flash-forward a week later to Saudi Arabia, and Mercedes are still dealing with it.

“Performance still to find” was the first line of Mercedes’ media release about Friday. “Clearly we still have a bit of work to do before we'll be troubling Red Bull or Ferrari,” Shovlin said.