2021 F1 Mercedes New Car Launch Review: James Punt
2021 F1 Mercedes New Car Launch Review
2021 F1 Mercedes – There has been no interest in changing a winning formula at Mercedes. Valtteri Bottas remains for another season, despite an underwhelming 2020. While Mercedes is winning both Championships, they are under no pressure to change anything. George Russell got a chance to show what he can do in a Mercedes in an actual race last season, and there were not many people who thought he didn’t do a better job than Bottas. The obvious thing for Mercedes to do was to promote him as Lewis Hamilton’s teammate.
However, that would rock the boat, it would end years of perfect continuity. It might also upset Lewis Hamilton. How would he cope with a driver who was putting him under pressure regularly, rather than just when the track surface was right? It is a risk that Mercedes did not have to take. Russell can wait. If Red Bull start to threaten Mercedes with Perez to improve their performance, then Bottas will be ditched. While things are cosy, he stays.
Limited Budget
Hamilton’s contract negotiations dragged on in to 2021. Mercedes now know that George Russell is a realistic replacement for not just Bottas, but Hamilton himself. They may well have resisted demands for a multi-year contract and a circa $40 million pay demands. Even Mercedes has a limited budget, more so for 2022. The result was a late agreement for a one-year deal. This smacks of just kicking the can down the road.
It is always a distraction for a driver and team to be negotiating a new contract during a season. Endless questions from the press and so on. By signing a one-year deal, it won’t be long before the inevitable speculation for 2022 starts. This time it will be accompanied by more pressing questions about George Russell as well. All in all, a bit of a negative.
Power Unit Issues
As has now become a bit of a pre-season tradition at Mercedes, they have said that they are having problems with their new power units. It was the same last year and we know that went. OK, last year they had extra time to address any problems as the season start was delayed. However, these stories are just leaked out to give the fans and opposition some faint hope that Mercedes are going to start the season on the back foot, only to be disappointed. If there are any real problems, we will find out at the pre-season test. I would advise against holding your breath in anticipation.
As the biggest team in Formula 1, Mercedes will feel the effects of the $145 million cost cap more than most. They had around 950 people in the team last year and they will have to start moving staff away from the racing team. However, it is important to remember that the cost cap only came into effect on the 1st of January. It will not have affected the design and production of this 2021 car.
Mercedes little trick steering system, the dual axis steering, introduced last year is now banned. It really wasn’t a talking point last season after the initial interest at the pre-season qualifying, which suggests it was a very marginal in terms of performance gain. Taking it off the car has reduced the weight of the car by about 2kg’s and this saving means ballast can be moved to optimise weight distribution.
Car Launch
Yesterday’s 2021 F1 Mercedes car launch was notable for the complete lack of information given about where Mercedes have spent their two allowable development tokens. They are under no obligation to do so. Other teams have also been careful to obscure parts of their new car, as is the norm. However, there seems little point in launching a car without telling people something about it. The cars livery remains black, that much is definite.
Like all this year’s cars, the W12 is largely a carry over from last year’s car. A car that secured 15 of the 17 pole positions and won 13 races. It was a car that had development stopped midway through the season but that still dominated right up to the end of the season. It was widely regarded as the best Formula 1 car ever built. There is very little that Mercedes will have needed to do in order for this W12 to set the standard for 2021.
Downforce Loss Addressed
What they are likely to have done is to address the downforce lost by the regulation changes to the floor, diffuser and rear brake ducts. These are the same for every team. The difference for Mercedes is that they have had more time and resources to address the changes. We know that Mercedes have designed the best car for every one of the seven years since the start of the Turbo Hybrid era. In the early days it was their advantage from the Mercedes power units which secured dominance but over the years, they have perfected all other aspects of their cars, always finding improvements, small incremental gains here and there which added up.
Visually, there are changes to the front brake ducts to improve aerodynamic performance. The sidepods and engine cover have been redesigned as has been the case with all the new 2021 cars launched so far.
Energy Recovery Systems
Likewise, the 2021 F1 Mercedes power unit has been redesigned for this season. The turbo charger is redesigned and the engine block is now made from a new alloy rather than last year’s aluminium block. Work has been carried out on the energy recovery systems in order to improve reliability, important given that we are due to have 23 races this season. Horsepower has been increased by an unknown amount, but it is likely to keep them at the top of the table in terms of power.
Overall, we can see some aero tweaks, we have been told of the power unit changes but basically this launch was to show of the paint job. The car that starts the first race will be different to the one launched. Mercedes is not giving any sort of heads up to the opposition as to what they have done with their development tokens. That will all come out in wash but for the time being it is safe to assume that this is the car to beat.
Mercedes have won the last seven World Drivers and Constructors Championships. They are the undisputed masters of the Turbo-Hybrid era. With this season’s cars all largely carried over from last season, it is very unlikely that they will be beaten in 2021. Red Bull Honda will likely close the gap, but it is a very large gap.
