IT WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY DIFFICULT – PERHAPS EVEN IMPOSSIBLE–
FOR OTHER TEAMSTO HAVE COPIED IT [DAS], EVEN IF THIS SEASON HADRUN
TO THE FULL 22RACES ORIGINALLY PLANNED
GP RACING APRIL 2020 99
the flow towards the rear of the car.
When you’re in the corner yougo back to
the standard setup, basically, where you open
the front toe togive stability while the car is
turning, and because you’ve heated the tyres
more evenly you improve that stability. Onthe
straight you will be heating them up a bit less
overall, but maybe just by a couple of degrees.
So, really, we’re talking about a few percentage
points – a percentage you may not even be able to
quantify, becausethe margin for error in the tyre-
temperature sensors is plus or minus one or two
degrees. But I still lovewhat Mercedes has done,
because it’s so F1: 1% is 1%, it’s still an advantage.
And you go for it. This is the racing spirit.
Obviously, its legality hasbeen questioned.
The FIA didn’t say it would be banned this
season, but that the wording of the regulations
would be adjusted so it would be illegal from
next year. Several other teams suggested they
would protest it at the first race of the season,
and Mercedes itself hasn’t confirmed whether
it would race with DAS.As you can see from Giorgio Piola’s drawings,
packaging the DAS system has required
Mercedes to redesign the mountingpoint s for
the wishbones. This means it would have been
very difficult – perhapseven impossible – for
other teamsto havecopied it, even if this season
had run to the full 22 races originally planned.
There’s also the possibility that Mercedes was
being incredibly strategic, and that this has been
introduced to distract its competitors from other
new aspects of the car that are more relevant and
effective in terms of adding performance.PICTURES
WHY MERCEDES HADTO
CHANGE BRAKE DUCT DESIGN
While the future of DAS is open to question, one
part of the Mercedes W11 that has been outlawed
is an additionalelement of the rear brake duct.
The rules are quite clear thatyou ’re not allowed
to use these ducts to improvethe air flow to the
rear wing or blow the diffuser. Prompted by achallenge from Red Bull, the FIA has now added
further clarity in this area.
Last season Ferrari protested the rear ducts
of the Mercedes W10. There is a prescribed
area of 160mm above the wheel’s centreline in
which the duct must sit. But on theMercedes
there was an additional inletpackaged as part
of the suspension upright. Mercedes argued,
successfully, that this didn’t feed air to the
brakes, rather it channeled airflow (illustrated
by blue arrows) into the void betweenthe brake
shroud and the inner face of the rear wheel.
This, it claimed, enabled cooling of the wheel
rim, thereby helping to manage the temperature
of the rear tyres.
But it’s also believed this design conferred an
aerodynamic advantage, creating an accelerated
flow between the lower part of the rear wing
and the diffuser. Red Bull phrased its query to
the FIA in such a way that the governing body
circulated a new technical directive outlawing
the presence of air shafts for any purpose outside
the 160mm reference area.SincelastyearMercedeshas
beenrunningasecondaryair
inletonitsrearsuspensionarms,
ostensiblytodirectairbetween
thebrakeshroudandtheinner
faceofthewheelIT WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY DIFFICULT – PERHAPS EVEN IMPOSSIBLE–
FOR OTHER TEAMSTO HAVE COPIED IT [DAS], EVEN IF THIS SEASON HADRUN
TO THE FULL 22RACES ORIGINALLY PLANNED
GP RACING APRIL 2020 99
the flow towards the rear of the car.
When you’re in the corner yougo back to
the standard setup, basically, where you open
the front toe togive stability while the car is
turning, and because you’ve heated the tyres
more evenly you improve that stability. Onthe
straight you will be heating them up a bit less
overall, but maybe just by a couple of degrees.
So, really, we’re talking about a few percentage
points – a percentage you may not even be able to
quantify, becausethe margin for error in the tyre-
temperature sensors is plus or minus one or two
degrees. But I still lovewhat Mercedes has done,
because it’s so F1: 1% is 1%, it’s still an advantage.
And you go for it. This is the racing spirit.
Obviously, its legality hasbeen questioned.
The FIA didn’t say it would be banned this
season, but that the wording of the regulations
would be adjusted so it would be illegal from
next year. Several other teams suggested they
would protest it at the first race of the season,
and Mercedes itself hasn’t confirmed whether
it would race with DAS.
As you can see from Giorgio Piola’s drawings,
packaging the DAS system has required
Mercedes to redesign the mountingpoint s for
the wishbones. This means it would have been
very difficult – perhapseven impossible – for
other teamsto havecopied it, even if this season
had run to the full 22 races originally planned.
There’s also the possibility that Mercedes was
being incredibly strategic, and that this has been
introduced to distract its competitors from other
new aspects of the car that are more relevant and
effective in terms of adding performance.PICTURES
WHY MERCEDES HADTO
CHANGE BRAKE DUCT DESIGN
While the future of DAS is open to question, one
part of the Mercedes W11 that has been outlawed
is an additionalelement of the rear brake duct.
The rules are quite clear thatyou ’re not allowed
to use these ducts to improvethe air flow to the
rear wing or blow the diffuser. Prompted by achallenge from Red Bull, the FIA has now added
further clarity in this area.
Last season Ferrari protested the rear ducts
of the Mercedes W10. There is a prescribed
area of 160mm above the wheel’s centreline in
which the duct must sit. But on theMercedes
there was an additional inletpackaged as part
of the suspension upright. Mercedes argued,
successfully, that this didn’t feed air to the
brakes, rather it channeled airflow (illustrated
by blue arrows) into the void betweenthe brake
shroud and the inner face of the rear wheel.
This, it claimed, enabled cooling of the wheel
rim, thereby helping to manage the temperature
of the rear tyres.
But it’s also believed this design conferred an
aerodynamic advantage, creating an accelerated
flow between the lower part of the rear wing
and the diffuser. Red Bull phrased its query to
the FIA in such a way that the governing body
circulated a new technical directive outlawing
the presence of air shafts for any purpose outside
the 160mm reference area.SincelastyearMercedeshas
beenrunningasecondaryair
inletonitsrearsuspensionarms,
ostensiblytodirectairbetween
thebrakeshroudandtheinner
faceofthewheel