Although the season has just begun, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team has found itself in the spotlight this season after the F1 Chinese GP. First, questions regarding their engine arrived, and after the F1 Chinese GP, questions regarding the behaviour of their front-wing aerodynamics have arrived.
F1 Chinese GP footage led to Mercedes front wing scrutiny
After the Chinese GP, footage of Kimi Antonelli’s front wing has been scrutinised. The questions come from what The Race described as the “multi-stage transition between the car’s straight and cornering mode”.
Essentially, the front wing appeared to be completely flat on the straights, but as it approached the corners, it ran in a halfway state. Then it moved again in the hairpin, where the front wing went all the way up again. The active aerodynamics of the front wing might breach FIA regulations. As per Article 3.10.10 of the technical regulations, the transition time between the front and rear wings’ modes is limited to 0.4 seconds. In the videos of Antonelli’s car, the transition appears to take longer than the maximum allowed time.
While rival teams took note of this, The Race stated: “the truth is that there was no deliberate act from Mercedes and a simpler explanation has been signed off as satisfactory by the FIA”.
A miscalculation by Mercedes
The answer to the theories appears to be that Mercedes made a miscalculation. While the transition takes more than 0.4 seconds, the slow return to corner mode was a mistake. The team miscalculated the hydraulic pressure required to close the wing at max speed. This was due to “the forces being pushed against it as the car travels through the air”.
After Mercedes became aware of the mistake, they changed the front wing of George Russell’s car during qualifying in China. However, Antonelli’s car still had the same experience during the Chinese GP.
The Race revealed that the FIA had a discussion with the team after receiving questions from rivals. The answer satisfied the FIA after the discussion.
Ahead of the Japanese GP this weekend, Russell spoke in the TV pen. After the questions were raised, the Mercedes driver claimed it was not right.
“We have worked so hard to get ourselves in this position, and the best team should come out on top. We’ve obviously had four years of struggle. There have been two other teams over four years who have dominated and won.
“Just because we’re sort of back on top, I don’t think it’s quite right, everybody’s trying to slow us down, especially when you’re two races in. We shouldn’t forget these things, we do have an advantage right now, but I think we’ve just really hit the ground running and done a great job. We hope it continues.”
