Mercedes will be gunning for a 6th straight constructor’s and driver’s title in the 2019 season.
With the new aerodynamic regulations kicking in, Wolff and Mercedes believe there could be a few shakeups in the grid this season.
In order to cement their domination at the top of the pile, Mercedes are all set to introduce an all-new power unit for 2019 season.
A new cooling architecture has been used for the 2019 power unit, something that Mercedes feel will iron out the issues faced by the team in the 2018 season.
“We’ve made changes to the cooling architecture of the power unit which hopefully provide aerodynamic benefit on the car and also provide efficiency benefit on the power unit – so hopefully a win on both the chassis and on the power unit.” Andy Cowell said.
“Right at the heart of the power unit is the conversion of fuel into heat release in the combustion chamber and useful work out of the crankshaft. We have made steps on the combustion efficiency and on the [energy recovery system].
“The marriage between the turbocharger assembly with the MGU-H, the inverter, the cells and the MGU-K: that whole system is now capable of operating more efficiently and helping with energy deployment through a race.” he added.
Mercedes did have a lot of issues with blistering last season, as the engine was a lot hard on the tyres.
James Allison has confirmed that solutions have been found to those issues and Mercedes can expect lesser tyre related headaches in 2019.
“The handling of the W09 was a big improvement over the rather idiosyncratic W08,” said Allison.
“We managed to be competitive at tracks which had plagued us in recent years. However, notwithstanding this improvement, we were still not as good as some of our competitors at preserving the performance of the rear tyres.
“We have worked hard on the suspension and aerodynamic characteristics to deliver a car that will be much kinder to its tyres – enough, we hope, to allow us to be competitive at all phases of the race and at each track on the calendar.” he added.
