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Mercedes has had a rather torrid start to the season in 2022. The team is around half a second slower than the frontrunners and is trying hard to close the gap to the front.
In its endeavor to close the gap to the front, Mercedes was reportedly expected to bring new upgrades to the car at the Australian GP. One of the key upgrades that was to make an appearance in Melbourne was the low downforce rear wing for the team.
According to motorsport journalist Mark Hughes, the planned low downforce rear wing, however, will not be making an appearance at this race.
The team is now planning to bring the intended rear wing to either Imola or Miami, the next races where the low-downforce wing could be needed. The German team has struggled from excessive drag down the straights because of which Mercedes is nowhere close to the straight-line speeds generated by Ferrari and Red Bull.
Even Lewis Hamilton had pointed this out at the Saudi Arabian GP where he found it extremely hard to pass Kevin Magnussen's car down the straights. Like Saudi Arabia, the newly modified layout of the Australian GP increases the reliance on low downforce configurations due to the increased number of straights in the race. With such a track layout, the low downforce rear wing could have proved to be an asset for the team as it continues to lose significant chunks of time on the straights.
Mercedes is already 40 points behind Ferrari in the constructors' championship
The eight-time reigning champions have gotten off to a rocky start to the season and are looking at a deficit of 40 points in the constructors' championship after just two races. Even in the drivers' championship, Lewis Hamilton is 29 points behind Charles Leclerc, while George Russell faces a 23-point deficit.
Mercedes is fighting on multiple fronts at the moment. The design philosophy that the team has chosen is not in resonance with anything on the grid. The team also has reduced Wind Tunnel time as it won the Constructors' Championship last season. To make things worse, the cost cap does not give the team too much freedom in terms of bringing in new parts.
Mercedes has not struggled to this extent since 2013 and it will be interesting to see how the team bounces back from the adversity it faces right now.
