Wolff: 'Exciting' prospect lured Mercedes down wrong path
Toto Wolff says his Mercedes Formula 1 team were lured into the "exciting" possibilities of floor development in 2022, which proved to be the major factor behind their drop in performance.
After the technical rules were revamped for 2022, ground effects were re-introduced into F1 for the first time since the 1970s, with Mercedes among those teams expected to fight for the championship, having won 15 of the previous 16 on offer.
In order for the breed of car to produce downforce, it needs to be run as close to the ground as is possible to generate performance.
However, a side effect of ground effects is porpoising, where the car gets so low that it bottoms out and loses aerodynamic grip before the airflow reattaches and creates downforce once again. It is this up and down motion which so badly affected cars during pre-season testing.
Mercedes have revealed that a single decision taken in regards to the floor in October 2021 was the root cause behind their slump to...