Mercedes monitoring Red Bull’s ‘interesting’ sidepods after testing

Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott suggested that they are closely looking at the car of their 2021 title rivals

Mercedes have hinted that they may consider copying Red Bull’s sidepods after the unique design caught the eye during preseason testing in Barcelona.

With aerodynamic rules overhauled ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 season, the testing in Spain was a first chance for the teams to assess both their new car designs and those of their rivals on circuit.

Red Bull’s new RB18 car stood out with its raised and undercut sidepods, which appear to allow more air to flow beneath them and were rather different to the designs of the other new cars.

Mercedes noted their 2021 title rivals’ different approach, and could consider tweaks of their own ahead of the season-opening Grand Prix in Bahrain.

“The most visually different [thing] I think are the sidepods that Red Bull Racing have come up with,” Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott said on a video released on the official Formula 1 YouTube channel.

“[It] looks interesting, so we’ll go and have a think about that.”

A theme of preseason testing was ‘porpoising’, with drivers struggling with bumpy rides and bouncing cars caused by increased downforce.

McLaren seemed to have figured out a solution towards the end of the opening three days of F1 action in 2022, but Elliott said that if the issue cannot be solved quickly it may be something that Mercedes and other teams must contend with in the early season racing.

“It’s a problem we’re all facing,” Elliott said.

“The reality is we’ve just got to learn as quickly as we can. We’re doing as much testing as we can here [in Barcelona], and we’ll do a lot of simulation work back at the factory.

“It will be about how we either solve that, or how we deal with it and mitigate it in the first races.”

The second round of testing takes place in Bahrain across three days from 10 March.