Technical Analysis
The philosophy behind the Mercedes W11 EQ Power+ is an evolution of last year’s W10. This is mainly because the F1 2020 regulations only feature a few technical tweaks compared to 2019 and the W10 package was extremely successful. However, to avoid running out of development scope throughout 2020, Mercedes have still made some substantial developments to the W11, including some architectural modifications.
‘The regulations stayed largely the same for the new year, so for us it was all about trying to make sure that we don’t run out of development steam on a package that worked pretty well for us last year,’ explains James Allison, Technical Director at Mercedes. ‘If we had continued merely to add flourishes to the 2019 baseline, we would have found some gains, but in all likelihood diminishing returns would be kicking in by now. We wanted to change aspects of the concept of the car – aspects that would be completely impossible to change within a season – to give us a more fertile platform for the new season. We tried to make a few well- chosen architectural changes to keep the development slope strong even though the regulations are now a little bit longer in the tooth.’
Mercedes focussed their development on three main areas: 1) Increased the complexity of the uprights and wheel rims to achieve a higher performance assembly 2) Moved the upper side impact tube to the lower position for aero gain 3) More adventurous rear suspension layout for aero gain.
‘All three [of these] investments were improvements in their own right, but their real effect is to mobilize a raft of secondary aerodynamic gains both during the winter and, we hope, across the season to come,’ highlights Allison. ‘We have worked – as we would always – on every square millimetre of the car to try and find improvements in this stable set of regulations. We have been well rewarded by the amount of downforce we’ve found since the last race of last year, giving us faith that our three projects have provided a sound foundation to build performance that would not have been possible on the 2019 car.’
Front Wing
Front wing design is a balancing act between generating downforce and generating outwash. In 2019 we saw a variety of different approaches which included loaded and unloaded front wings. Loaded front wings are where the height of the main elements are at a maximum at the endplate and this height reduces as you move inboard towards the nose. This approach maximises downforce, but reduces the amount of outwash.
Whereas, an unloaded design maximises outwash, but reduces downforce. This is because the main elements are much shorter at the endplate, which makes it easier to turn the flow around the tyre, promoting outwash but there is less downforce-generating flap area.
The W11’s front wing is a compromise between the two where the top element reduces in height towards the outboard section, which could be working together with the curved trailing edge of the endplate to promote outwash. This design appears to be identical to last year’s front wing, however Mercedes may turn up with a slightly different design once racing resumes.
Front wing endplates
The front wing endplate has seen a minor rule change for 2020. In an attempt to reduce the likelihood of tyre damage, the leading 50mm must now be made purely of carbon fibre. Any metal fasteners or inserts used for attaching the endplate to the wing profiles is now only allowed 30mm rearwards from the leading edge.
Despite this, the front wing endplates of the W11 are very similar to last year’s, aside from the addition of a small profile (blue).
The behaviour of the airflow surrounding this additional profile can be seen below in Flowviz.
Nose
The nose of the W11 appears to be slightly narrower compared to last year, with the ‘cape’ structures either side also slightly thinner. Although, the angle of these shots is slightly different which could be skewing the appearance.
The nose features an S-duct, with the two rectangular channels (red) running through the nose. There is also a duct on the lower part of the nose (blue). This could be to channel air through to the underfloor, with the W11 featuring a wider duct that is positioned further back when compared to the one on the W10.
Front Suspension
Aside from a few minor tweaks, the pushrod front suspension remains similar to last year with the upper wishbone (blue), lower wishbone (purple), as well as the pushrod (orange) and steering rod (yellow) all in the same positions.
The behaviour of the air flowing over the suspension elements is shown by the Flowviz at pre-season testing below.
Impact tubes
One of the areas that Mercedes has worked on, as confirmed by Allison, is the location of the upper side impact tube (blue). This is a standard part that all teams have to run as part of the side impact crash structure and is manufactured by Red Bull. Previously, this was positioned at the top of the sidepod inlet, whereas now it has been moved to the bottom. Allison says that Mercedes ‘have banked the aerodynamic gain that comes with this layout.’ Although without seeing the CFD, it’s difficult to deduce exactly what aerodynamic benefit he is referring to.
Sidepods
Optimising the packaging of the power unit and its associated cooling systems has been a trend of 2020 so far. The sidepod inlets are now much shorter, wider and squarer than last years.
‘We’ve improved the cooling package,’ confirms Allison. ‘We’ve created more face area – so more actual radiator area in the car – which is a difficult thing to do mid-season without incurring quite a lot of penalty. But between the years you can do it and it won’t cost you except a little bit of weight,’ continues Allison. ‘We’ve also benefitted from an investment that HPP have made on our behalf. They’ve worked to raise the operating temperature of the engine which eases the cooling burden on us because the hotter the fluid, the less radiator you need to cool it.’
Rear Wing
The rear wing on the W11 is predominantly the same as last year’s aside from a few minor tweaks. The top edge of the upper element (red) has a more curved profile, swooping downwards in the middle towards the DRS mechanism. The lower edge of the main element is also more curved.
‘Nothing much has changed in the regulations and so the car will be running at very similar drag levels to last year,’ says Allison. ‘What has changed, of course, is that our efforts over the winter have increased the aerodynamic efficiency of the aerodynamic package, rewarding us with a car that generates a lot more downforce in exchange for that drag.’
