Mercedes unveils its W07

If Mercedes decided not to have a dedicated event for the unveiling of its car, it nevertheless conducted a teaser in recent days. On Friday, the world champion team released an onboard camera video held by Nico Rosberg for his first drive on the Silverstone circuit.

On the eve of the first winter tests, Mercedes has published the first official images of its car on its website. Who better to explain its developments than its chief designer, Paddy Lowe, the technical director of Mercedes?

Thus, there are two main developments from a mechanical perspective: « From a mechanical point of view, the main change is the separation between the exhaust pot and the wastegate. However, in reality, this did not have a significant impact. The biggest structural difference is related to the chassis, where we have raised the protection around the driver by two centimeters and increased the lateral load from 15 to 50 kN. This is a substantial increase in the load that the chassis must withstand at this point, which significantly enhances the driver’s protection. »

Regarding driver protection, one of the main topics at the moment is the protection of pilots’ heads, with many discussions and proposals for elements that could protect drivers in that area. The discussions have intensified following Justin Wilson’s fatal accident last year in IndyCar at Pocono. Paddy Lowe therefore hopes that a solution can be found as soon as possible: “This is a project that has been underway for several years, and the motivation to find a solution and implement regulation has recently accelerated. There are a number of proposals on the table, and some are very realistic. Hopefully, a solution can be found for 2017.”

But before that, the team must focus on 2016. The winter break was therefore dedicated to finding small improvements in all areas that will allow the team to maintain its dominance in the category. This was all the more complicated because the technical regulations have evolved very little compared to last season, which means that most of the major trends have already been explored: « It’s difficult to have a complete revolution when the rules remain the same. But we are looking for small revolutions everywhere, even on small subjects. For example, we can look for a completely different package or a new suspension concept. So even if the car may seem very similar to the previous one from an external point of view, which is normal when the regulations remain stable, inside, there are several mini revolutions that make it a real evolution for the upcoming season. »

The team will therefore have to make the most of the two four-day winter testing sessions to fine-tune their settings before Melbourne, especially since the time between the second Barcelona session and the first Grand Prix is very limited this year.

From the sponsors’ perspective, it can also be noted that BlackBerry is no longer on the team’s list of sponsors.

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr