Andrew Shovlin believes there are some areas Mercedes can explore on their power unit in a bid to improve overall performance. While Formula 1 has introduced an engine freeze - which came into effect on 1 March - that prevents any developments on the current power units, changes can still be made in order to better improve reliability and, in turn, efficiency. With some question marks about the new Mercedes engine in light of their subdued performances over the opening four races of the season, Shovlin - the team's Head of Trackside Engineering - has said there are still aspects they can improve.
What changes might Mercedes make to the power unit?
"Well, we're constantly doing analysis on that," Shovlin told media, including RacingNews365.com , when asked about the potential of the current power unit. "There are areas that we think we can improve in terms of managing the deployment. However, it's a homologated unit now, so you can only do things for reliability. "[But] that doesn't stop us looking at what we can do within the modes and how we can use those better. Whether there is anything more we can gain in how we're deploying the modes that are available. "But we're not quick enough and, when you're not quick enough, you look at all areas for improvement. "So the remit of the power unit people is to focus on that and look at any fine-tuning that we can do to find gains. "And, on the chassis side, we've got a lot of different projects at the moment to try and move forward."
What about other car developments?
With Mercedes introducing some minor aerodynamic updates to the W13 at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which had little effect on reducing the car's porpoising issues, Shovlin said they were aware coming to Imola that the upgrades wouldn't address their biggest weaknesses. "This was normal aero development. To be honest, we're working on the issues we've got with bouncing separately," he admitted. "The developments we brought here, we were aware that they're not going to affect that. So that was why we were focused on those parts. "But, as an aside, we're still working hard to try and understand and get on top of the bouncing. "As well as the [tyre] warm-up – that's another area that's a weakness of this car that we need to fix before we'll be competitive."
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