George Russell says there is more to the W13's performance issues than the sidepods. F1
went down a very different route with the design of their 2022 car, most striking were the narrow sidepods, commonly referred to as a ‘zero-pod’ concept.Put to him by Sky Sports F1 that the W13 seems to be a real “Jekyll and Hyde” car, Russell replied: “Yeah, I think we understand exactly why at circuits like Zandvoort and Budapest, why we were competitive, and we understand why on circuits like this [Monza] and Spa we were uncompetitive.
“That doesn’t mean that we can solve the issues overnight, but we’ve got to keep on developing this car and next year will sort of be an evolution of this, and I think now we do have a totally clear direction on how to develop the car.” Russell though does not believe that the sidepods are the main factor behind Mercedes’ level of performance.Asked if this then means that it is not a case of looking at Red Bull or“We’ve obviously got a pretty unique design with those sidepods, it’s not off the cards that we will continue with that design, but it’s equally not off the cards that we will totally change philosophy.
“But ultimately, whether we have the wide sidepods or the narrow sidepods, that isn’t the performance differentiator, there’s more to it.”