Formula One car development blog

While other teams have been busy copying Mercedes' S-duct inlets in the nose cone, the championship team itself was busy further developing its own device. The team have certainly taken inspiration from McLaren's solution of 2016, with an outlet ahead of the kink in the nose cone, and split up by the fairing around the pitot tube.

An image taken today by f1today also shows the clear evolution that Mercedes have done, making the outlet clearly a lot larger than it was on the F1 W07.... Read more

As was expect, the Mercedes AMG F1 W07 was equipped with a new nose cone when it left the pits on Thursday morning at Barcelona. Named 'Nose 1' by the team, it is the follow-up of the 'Nose 0' (inset, top left) that was used in the first three days of testing, and which was essentially the same as last year's nose cone.

The new one is a clear evolution of the same Mercedes concept. Rather than switching over to a thumb style nose, the team have retained the small nose box, rounded t... Read more

Having completed more than the targeted mileage on the first day of testing, and actually topping their mileage record from any test session since the introduction of the current engine regulations, Mercedes are again one step ahead of the competition as they have already started to add new aerodynamic components on their car, a single day after the W07 debut.

Named the W-floor by Mercedes, the area ahead of the sidepod now features a number of serrated horizontal and vertical panes... Read more