After more than a season of Mercedes going it alone in pursuit of its zeropod concept, it finally abandoned the idea as it pursued the growing trend for what has become known as the downwash solution.

The fact that Red Bull had been so successful from the off with its downwash design inevitably prompted suggestions that Mercedes’ change of tack would bring some immediate and automatic gains.

However, the reality of Formula 1 car design is that things are never as simple as that.

In Mercedes’ case, the new direction for the sidepods was a bold move to make because, rather than the shift to downwash delivering an instant uptick in form, the squad was left facing a solution that, at best, delivered no benefit and at worst actually cost it lap time.

That is because although the zeropod

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