F1 News
Mercedes Analysis: Does the strange bump on the W12 explain anything?
Mercedes unveiled their lastest car under the current technical regulations, the W12 on Tuesday. You would say that, due to the restrictions imposed by the FIA for 2021, the development of current cars has stagnated. But there are still plenty of changes.
Mercedes presents their car just like Red Bull Racing with only a few computer-generated photos, where we don't get to see anything from the rear. In the online presentation on YouTube, the camera also keeps away from the diffuser.
The only difference with Red Bull is that Mercedes presents their photos on a black background. With the still predominantly black car, this makes it extra difficult to distinguish details from the W12. This makes the new floor in particular dwarfed. Nevertheless, we will attempt to highlight the most important changes below.
Silver is slowly returning to Mercedes
The biggest change from the presentation of the W11 in 2020 is of course the black livery. This has already been presented during the 2020 season and actually already feels "normal". What we do see is that the silver on the back is slowly taking its place again, something which Toto Wolff says during the presentation is also the intention in the long run. At the moment it seems as if the colours are reversed on the car, just like Alfa Romeo.
The second thing that stands out about the livery is the extra attention for the sponsors. In addition to extra stickers for AMG, Petronas has gotten some extra turquoise on the front wing and the red of INEOS on the airbox is also more noticeable. Apart from those details, the overall design of the livery has of course remained the same.
We also see this continuity in the aerodynamics of the car. Of course, the car has a new floor like all other teams, but beyond that, we see very few changes, perhaps even less than with Red Bull Racing. James Allison says Mercedes has used their tokens but is not ready to reveal what. It is unclear whether these new parts are already on the car at the presentation, but it does not seem like it.
The only changes we can see at the front of the car are different brake ducts and some extra fins on the bargeboards. Standard further developments of the car, which we do not have to look too much behind.
Does the Mercedes engine need extra space?
Probably the most interesting change is the "pimple" that developed halfway up the hood. It seems that one of the engine parts needs extra space. The question now is whether this is because Mercedes wrapped the hood so tightly around the engine or because the Mercedes power source is somehow bigger than last year.
At McLaren, we also saw that the bonnet protruded a bit more than last year, but they have changed engine supplier, so that does not necessarily say anything about the Mercedes engine. It will therefore be interesting to see if a similar change has taken place at Aston Martin and Williams.
This article was written and originally published by Pelle on the Dutch edition of GPblog.com.