Mercedes topped the times at the Spanish Grand Prix venue with what was an early development phase package, an achievement that required significant ride height changes and metal floor stays not originally designed to be run nor considered legal under F1’s original technical rules to be added.
But Shovlin, Mercedes’ director of trackside engineering, has revealed that although the team’s issue with porpoising had been spotted at its shakedown run during Storm Eunice two weeks earlier and continued at Barcelona, it was not overly concerned because the W13 was yet to run in its race specification.
