Mercedes have worked very hard on their car to make it better than the 2017 version, and while teams generally work on engine improvements, Allison, the Mercedes technical director has revealed that a lot of focus was put on the aerodynamic aspect of the car.
“We’ve done an awful lot of work down there [around the sidepods] to try to make that car really, really slender,” said Allison.
“If you compare it to [the 2017] car, you can just see the difference. You can see that the bodywork bulges out around about where the engine and exhaust pack is.” he added.
While the change is not that visible to the naked eye, Allison has claimed that the W09 is 0.25 seconds faster(with respect to lap timing) due to that sidepod change.
“On the new car this is a much, much more slender thing. It doesn’t look like much of a difference but actually when you add it all up it is something like 0.25 seconds just there.
“It doesn’t look like much of a difference but it was actually a huge amount of work. A lot of hair got lost in that project, but the end result is something that is pretty to look at but also much more importantly is an awful lot quicker.” the Mercedes technical director said.
Allison feels that if the W08 and W09 were to ever feature in a race, the W09 would win hands down, and majorly because of this aerodynamic change.
Across the entire car, across every part of its surface, we’ve made it new. We’ve found different ways of doing it,” he said.
“We have found improved way 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.
“Last year’s car was the quickest one out there. It won more races than any other and it was of course the championship winner.
“But last year’s car would be utterly hopeless, it would be blown away by this one because of all that work by all those people over an entire year making modifications at every level.
“All of them are small but all of them are accumulating to a huge end result and a car that is just much, much faster.” he concluded.
So, with Mercedes already winning the constructor’s championship for the last 4 years, and it coming up with an even faster car this time round, can anyone stop Hamilton and Mercedes from winning the title this time round too?
