Mercedes front fender defective

However, the Mercedes team brought a modernized front wing for the W13 to Austin, in a single copy. However, it will not be possible to use it in races for the Mexican Grand Prix and certain design changes will have to be made.

The new Mercedes wing was known in advance, already on Thursday everyone at the teams of the team could see the updated W13 nose cone. According to Auto Motor und Sport, five new stabilizers with a characteristic shape, which appeared between the two upper wing surfaces, immediately attracted general attention.

They don’t look like the usual connecting elements that hold these planes together, but resemble small wings, turned slightly outward. It doesn’t take an expert to know that they are designed to divert some of the airflow.

The technical regulations allow the use of special clamps that serve to stabilize the wing surfaces, but in the case of Mercedes, these elements clearly perform a certain aerodynamic function.

Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes chief engineer Andrew Shovlin, explains the concept: “These improved elements reduce the downforce acting on the protruding front wing tip, improve the quality of the power sent to the brake drums, which in turn allows more effective control from the turbulence area around the front wheels and further to the rear of the machine, these stabilizers also increase the stiffness of the two upper wing surfaces.

Only one such wing reached Austin in time and the second got stuck on the road due to a logistical failure, so Mercedes immediately decided to use the novelty only in the Mexican stage of the championship. In addition, the training program in Austin was cut short because of Pirelli’s tire tests, which prevented the normal comparison tests of the two versions of the wing.

But on Friday, it turned out that the FIA ​​technical experts did not allow the use of new items: from their point of view, the size of the stabilizers is too large. This was surprising to the team, as all the necessary information about the upgraded wing was provided to the federation in the form of CAD files and pre-approved. And all the hasty changes that have to be made now inevitably come with additional costs, both time and money.

Before the Mexican Grand Prix, Mercedes engineers and designers will have to reduce the dimensions of the stabilizers, which of course will reduce their aerodynamic effect.

It has been assumed that the last set of updates prepared by the team for the final stages of the season will achieve a certain speed increase. In addition to the front wing, both the rear and the underside of the W13 were modernized and by calculations all this should have helped to regain up to one and a half tenths of a second on a circle.