If it ain’t
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it still
needs fixing
“Every time we make a big change there’s always an
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the exhaust pipes better? How do we make the cooling in the
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the good bits. You look and think ‘it’s only two milliseconds’,
but you do it in ten places and it’s 20 milliseconds.”
This statement by Andy Cowell, chief whizz at Mercedes’
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that has underpinned the team’s recent dominance of F1.
Team boss Toto Wolff talks of the team motto: ‘See it, say it,
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while you’re at, make the good bits better too.
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you won’t see risk-taking. We are in a risk-taking business.”
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deliberately built their 2017 car to 90 per cent of its design
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challenges. Last year’s W08 had the longest wheelbase on
the grid, affording great stability on high-speed tracks, and
offering the aerodynamicists plenty of physical space on
which to place performance-enhancing parts.
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too hard on its tyres. Extracting performance also required
engineers to “ignore a lot of what we thought were the
standard ways of engineering a car and go off in the opposite
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Despite these troublesome characteristics, which led Wolff
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The front suspension has been altered and the rear ride-
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more apparent than in the incredibly tight packaging around
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tune of 0.25 seconds per lap, according to Allison.
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ways of getting downforce and performance into the car.
Each one of them is small in isolation, but they add up in
their totality to something that is enormous.”
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of thousands of tiny parts that adds up to one mighty whole.MERCEDES W09
MERCEDES-AMG
F1 W09 EQ POWER+
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
Engine Mercedes-AMG F1
M09 EQ Power+
Front suspension
Carbon fibre wishbone and
pushrod-activated torsion
springs and rockers
Rear suspension
Carbon fibre wishbone and
pullrod-activated torsion
springs and rockers
Brakes Carbone Industrie
discs and pads,
Brembo calipers
Weight 733kg