Formula 1 United States GP
Red Bull: Mercedes F1 suspension could bring "powerful" gain in final races
Red Bull thinks Mercedes could enjoy a ‘quite powerful’ benefit from its clever rear suspension at some of the remaining Formula 1 races of the season.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Oct 28, 2021, 10:59 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Intrigue has surrounded the way that Mercedes has tuned its rear suspension system so that the back end of the car drops down at high speed on the straights.
This behaviour helps reduce drag to boost top speed, and Red Bull believes it played a key part in the advantage that Mercedes had at the recent Turkish Grand Prix.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told Sky F1 in the United States last weekend that venues like Istanbul – with a lot of medium speed corners and long straights – was perfect for the Mercedes concept.
"I think that Mercedes are obviously optimising a straightline device that they're able to do at that type of circuit," Horner told Sky in Austin during FP1. "If you look at the rear of their car, how it lowers, I think [Turkey] played to their strengths."
However, tuning the Mercedes system for venues like the Circuit of the Americas, with higher speed turns, is much harder because there is not enough variation between the top corner speeds and the straights.
Horner believes though that some venues coming up on the calendar will be perfect for the Mercedes idea.
“It will have a greater influence at some tracks than others,” said Horner. “It was a reduced effect here [in the United States] but somewhere like Jeddah for example, it could be quite powerful.”
Although Red Bull is intrigued by what Mercedes has done with its suspension, the team is clear that it does not believe that the design breaks F1’s regulations.
“We don’t feel that it is illegal, no,” said Horner. “It's something that has been used historically. We've seen it used by them in the past.
“But obviously, what we saw in Turkey was quite an extreme version of it, which that circuit seemed to allow.”
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
Mercedes has downplayed the influence of its suspension system, and thinks Red Bull is making too much of the impact it brings.
Team boss Toto Wolff said: “I think we recognise absolutely that this is a sport where competitors will always try to find out if there is some kind of silver bullet.
"My experience is there is no such thing, it’s all the small gains, marginal gains that have been added and bring performance.
"We’re trying to really comprehend our car better and add performance in lap time without listening too much to the noise."
Read Also:
- What's behind Mercedes' F1 straightline performance gains?
- Horner: Chuck F1 form book away in title run-in
- The positives Mercedes sees in Austin F1 loss
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Horner: Chuck F1 form book away in title run-in
Next article Bottas: "Mercedes hasn't found issues with remaining F1 engines"
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jonathan Noble
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
Formula 1
Formula 1 Dec 31, 2024
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1 Dec 31, 2024
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
Formula 1
Formula 1
Australian GP
Dec 28, 2024
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
More from
Red Bull Racing
Tsolov named Red Bull, Racing Bulls reserve driver after missing out on 2027 F1 race seat
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
21 h
Tsolov named Red Bull, Racing Bulls reserve driver after missing out on 2027 F1 race seat
Max Verstappen on Ferrari clashes: "I would never sign two number-one drivers"
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 d
Max Verstappen on Ferrari clashes: "I would never sign two number-one drivers"
Latest news
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
27 min
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
1 h
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
2 h
The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe