‘This is the extreme sister car’
We run down the new-look formula 1 grid for 2018. by robert lad brook
Mercedes bosses have described its new F1 challenger as the “extreme” sister car to last year’s world title-winning F 1 W 08.
This year’s Silver Arrow – the F1 W09 EQ Power+ – was wheeled out at Silverstone for a filming day last week, where it turned laps in the hands of both Valtteri Bottas and four-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Last year’s Mercedes was the outright fastest car on the grid, carrying the team to 12 wins from the 20 races. However, the car did prove unpredictable at certain tracks as Mercedes sought to find a balance. The temperamental car earned the nickname of “the diva”.
Mercedes head Toto Wolff said the W09 was largely an evolution of its predecessor, but with heavy development.
The new car retains the same wheelbase dimensions but runs increased rake, a set-up solution pioneered by Red Bull last season. The sidepods’ leading edge has been smoothed over last year’s design and the bodywork is now much more tightly packed around the engine and transmission.
“We’ve tried to stay true to our design philosophy and develop on an already solid base,” said Wolff. “We hope that we have kept all of the good characteristics from the diva. We all like divas, but sometimes she was difficult to understand and this is the area we have worked on most – trying to understand and preserve the speed and find more driveability.
“Because the regulations have remained stable, there is not a lot of difference. The most visible change is aerodynamic and how tight the packaging of the car is and how closed up the bodywork is.”
Mercedes technical director James Allison said: “Last year’s car was never easy to work with, even at tracks where we were strong. Hopefully this year’s car will speak to us as engineers and to drivers a little more clearly.
“Across the board this design is more elegant than last year. Last year’s regulations were brand new and we weren’t quite sure which direction they would take us in. Last year’s car had a lot of wiggle room to adapt if we found that we needed to change certain aspects. This year, being more confident of what we’re aiming for, we’ve been able to commit fully to certain concepts. We have the packaging much tighter and have taken things to more of an extreme.”
To make the W09, over 7,000 bespoke parts were made and 40,000 components stringently tested.
Mercedes has also worked hard on its power unit development, with the FIA’S mandated three engine and two energy recovery systems per car limit for this year demanding a 40 per cent increase in longevity over last year.
“The amount of change on the power unit was quite considerable,” said AMG engine chief Andy Cowell. “The biggest challenge is lifting durability. We focused on trying to increase the life without losing performance.
“We also wanted to change the packaging of the power unit to benefit overall car performance, finding the best integration into the chassis. We’ve also been working on combustion efficiency and hardware friction reduction.”