Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin believes that the issues the team has faced in 2022 will make it stronger.
After 8 years at the top of the pecking order, Mercedes found themselves in a different position in 2022. Porpoising affected the performance of the W13 car which did not allow the Silver Arrows to compete with Red Bull and Ferrari at the start of the season.
Mercedes were experimenting with set-up and were updating the car in order to get rid of porpoising. The efforts paid off as Mercedes finished on the podium in six latest races. Furthermore, George Russell took the pole position in the Hungarian GP qualifying.
Shovlin thinks that the experience Mercedes have had in 2022 will strengthen them.
“The real confidence is that we’re doing the right things, the team’s working well and we’re going in the right direction,” he said on the F1 Nation podcast.
“At the start of the year, if we got a podium, it was because one or two other cars made a mistake, or they had a reliability issue.
“We know where we want to get to with the team and the car. We want to be the quickest car, we want to be qualifying on pole on merit. And these are all steps that we’ve got to go along that journey.
“We had a very difficult start point. But the team has really worked hard and really gelled to try and get this back on track.
“It’s been an interesting challenge for us. I wouldn’t say it’s all been fun. But I think it’s a challenge that the team will emerge stronger from.”
