Toto Wolff won’t rule out shock Mercedes move which could make its F1 car ‘much slower’

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has refused to rule out a return to the ‘much slower’ Formula 1 car concept it ran at pre-season testing in Barcelona in an effort to improve its toiling W13.

The Silver Arrows were way off the pace of frontrunners Red Bull and Ferrari once again at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, with drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell unable to challenge for the race win in a car which is at best capable of leading the midfield as things stand.

The Brackley-based squad have won eight consecutive constructors’ championships since 2014, dominating F1 with the fastest car in every single season of the hybrid era. But 2022 has brought with it the biggest regulation change in a generation in Formula 1, and so far this campaign Mercedes are way off the pace of rivals Ferrari and Red Bull.

F1 has returned to ground effect car designs this year for the first time since the 1980s, in an effort to allow cars to follow one another more closely and for drivers to race each other harder. So far, the changes seem to be having the desired effect, with Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen engaging in thrilling tactical tussles for the lead in all four of the opening rounds.

But the aerodynamic shift has brought with it a peculiar quirk known as ‘porpoising’, which sees cars bouncing violently up and down when travelling at high speeds due to the balance of air beneath the floor shifting forwards and backwards. While some teams have managed to resolve or mitigate the issue, Mercedes’ W13 car is suffering worse than most, and is simply slower through the corners than Ferrari and Red Bull’s machinery.

Mercedes have been unable to ascertain the cause of the porpoising, which Wolff has claimed does not show up at all in