Mercedes 'definitely not the favourites’ at 2022 F1 British GP, says team's trackside engineer

Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin, believes the team is “definitely not the favourites” for victory at the 2022 F1 British GP despite having solved its porpoising issues for the most part.

Although he conceded that the team is much closer to the front runners than it has ever been this season, Shovlin believes that Mercedes still needs to take a step forward in regards to performance to challenge for victory. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said:

“I think we’re definitely not favourites will be the third favourite team at best I think.”

He added:

“If we took the very best situations on race face if you look at Barcelona, we weren’t far off the pace of leaders. Now we do need to make a step forward to be back in that in that position.”

The German team had its strongest showing this season in the last race in Montreal, with both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell having finished within the top four. New parts brought to the race helped the team finally get a handle on its porpoising issues and significantly improved its performance.

Meanwhile, the FIA's technical directive regarding porpoising is also set to go into effect at the British GP, potentially helping Mercedes extract the W13’s full potential without having to sacrifice driveability. Shovlin believes that performance will ultimately depend on how the car reacts to the circuit. He added:

“We’d never rule out a when going to a Grand Prix. It obviously depends on how the car performs. But we get we’re going to keep pushing. We’re going to do our best.”

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Mercedes not looking to change concepts anytime soon, insists Shovlin

Andrew Shovlin has dismissed claims that Mercedes might consider switching away from its current aerodynamic concept after slipping back into the midfield this season.

The team is reportedly working to improve the W13’s existing aero package while also improving the car’s ride, but Shovlin insisted that there is no plan to switch concepts. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said:

“There are some areas that we’ve got to improve in and around the aerodynamic package is one of them. We’re also looking at the vehicle dynamics, trying to improve prove the ride, but with the concept we’re not going to roll out some radically different looking thing.”

Much of Mercedes’ struggles this season have been attributed to its infamous “no-sidepod” design that takes its favored narrow body and long wheelbase packaging to the extreme.

After the concept failed to yield the results that the team had hoped for, many expected it to switch to a more traditional concept that is in line with the rest of the grid. However, it currently has no intention of doing so.

Catch the eight-time world champion at the British GP on July 3, 2022.