Wolff suspects W14 'bouncing' issue caused by Spa upgrades

Toto Wolff suspects the upgrades introduced by Mercedes at Spa, and specifically changes to the W14's floor, caused the significant bouncing issues suffered by the team's drivers during the weekend.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell concluding their Belgian Grand Prix respectively fourth and sixth but the former was quite vocal after the race about the return of the porpoising phenomenon that so severely undermined Mercedes' 2022 campaign.

Wolff said the engineers at Brackley would be digging this week into the data to determine the root cause of the problem and a solution in time for the team's next race at Zandvoort at the end of August.

"The main limiting factor was the bouncing - the car was just bouncing literally on every straight," explained Wolff, echoing Hamilton's comments after the race.

"Even Blanchimont was a corner where Lewis had to lift, and it is an easy flat normally. So, you’re bouncing on the straight, you overheat the tyres under braking, and that is a vicious circle.

Read also:

• Hamilton: W14 rear end and 'bouncing' biggest issues in Belgian GP

"It’s frustrating to check out for the holidays like this but [the next few days] we’ve got to understand more based on the data."

©Mercedes

Although Wolff suspected the issue was induced by Mercedes' Spa updates, the Austrian doesn't believe that the team's development programme should be called into question.

"We’ve got to analyse it," he said. "There is so much hard work that’s been going on for the upgrade. The aero guys, and the operations to deliver that upgrade, you’ve got to take your hat off to them.

"I think the floor could have been the reason why we’ve been bouncing, but we’re going to see it in the data.

"And maybe there’s something that we need to find, because I still believe the direction that we’re going now is the right one."

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