Mercedes will introduce a final aerodynamic upgrade for the 2022 Formula 1 season at the United States Grand Prix. In doing so, the German team are still trying to end the year with a victory.

Between 2014 and 2020, it was Mercedes that ran away with both championships. This was followed by only a constructors' title last season, but Mercedes is struggling to cope with the new 2022 regulations compared to Red Bull Racing. Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' top engineer, told opposite Racer that an update aimed at delivering more lap time will be introduced in Austin with the aim of competing with Red Bull and Ferrari in the final four races, but also to learn for 2023.

Learning process

"It’s our final step of aero development and that will hopefully give us a bit more performance but importantly with every step, we are learning more and more and that learning we can carry into next year", Shovlin said. A few bits of parts have also been taken out to hopefully get the car closer to the weight limit.

Despite the goals of the new parts, Shovlin says the season is difficult to predict and he is not sure how and if Circuit of the Americas suits Mercedes this year. "It’s a tricky circuit and it was a tricky circuit for us last year,” he said. “It was very bumpy, there was a lot of overheating from the tires and we weren’t performing as well as Red Bull were on the softer tires."

No predictions

Shovlin hopes that now that the track has been resurfaced, the problems with the bumps will be a thing of the past. "We will not really be going to make any predictions about where we are going to perform, we just need to go there on Friday, see what kind of issues we have and then see whether we can solve those with set-up."