Mercedes will review its copy

Mercedes knew the start of the season would be difficult. But, if Nico Rosberg manages to keep up appearances thanks to his two podiums, the W01 clearly cannot compete with the single-seaters of McLaren, Ferrari et Red Bull. Renault, who started from afar, even wants to return the cars of the German manufacturer. The team had to react.

Thus, Mercedes sees in Barcelona a radical change in the course of this season. If teams, like Renault for example, wanted to make regular changes to their single-seaters, Ross Brawn's team chose to target the Spanish Grand Prix as a new start for this season.

Barcelona will therefore be a real turning point and Mercedes will not hold back. The W01 will be enhanced with significant aerodynamic developments. These updates should bring better balance to the car, as will the changes to the wheelbase. The Brackley team wants to increase it in order to improve mass distribution.

« The problem is not really the wheelbase itself, confides Ross Brawn to autosport.com. The problem is the distribution of masses, which is not good. » According to the team director, this balance was not well thought out compared to the 2010 tires. « When we tested these tires, we realized that the weight distribution was not good. We pushed to the limits of what we could do with this car. It is not the wheelbase that is in question but the distribution of masses which is not as we wish. »

However, it is the wheelbase that will evolve, in order to modify this distribution and bring better balance to the W01. “ The car will evolve for Barcelona in order to achieve a weight distribution that is what we want », insists Ross Brawn.

In addition, the Briton confides that Mercedes is working on an F-duct system, allowing a flow of air to rush under the car and come out at the level of the rear wing to eliminate part of the aerodynamic downforce, a useful tip in a straight line to gain speed. But the silver arrows will not have a system copied from that of the MP4-25. “ McLaren's system, managed by the driver, is very complicated to set up, specifies Ross Brawn. McLaren has designed its car to integrate it perfectly, and it?s not easy to adapt it. »

If Mercedes tried a first version of this F-duct in Shanghai, Ross Brawn confides that his team is still groping. “ What we had in China was a simple passive system. It is not triggered by the driver and is therefore not as effective as McLaren's. We are still working on a system that we could benefit from in Barcelona or Istanbul. It?s complicated but our aerodynamicists are working on it. » Loïc Bigois, head of the Mercedes GP aero department, and rewarded in 2009 for the work carried out on the Brawn GP 001, therefore has his work cut out for him.