Mercedes will have to grit their teeth for a few more weeks before the arrival of developments, a wait, however, that could be shortened. The Brackley team is evaluating when to bring the updates to the track, torn between the need to get back ahead of the competition and the desire to extend wind tunnel development to maximize performance gain. The news, however, has been in the works for several months now, with the team confident of being able to regain an important advantage over rivals.
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The temptation of getting ahead
Andrea Kimi Antonelli spoke about Mercedes’ development plans, who in the Zandvoort paddock met the Italian press, including FormulaPassion.it: “Our big package will arrive later, I think in a couple of races. Now the team is evaluating whether to bring it earlier, or to continue developing these updates to make them even bigger. It is not yet clear when exactly we will bring it.” Among the hypotheses circulated in recent days, a possible arrival of the developments in Malaysia was suggested, but, according to the world championship leader, the team could now bring forward the debut. Certainly, there are great expectations for the news in the works, since the team has been waiting for their arrival since the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Brackley outfit followed the strategy of investing in developments at the start of the year to secure an advantage over the competition, then putting themselves in a position to wait and meanwhile work in the wind tunnel. “The team has done a great job giving us a very competitive car,” commented Kimi. “This allowed us to wait a little longer to bring the updates and, when we do, hopefully we will return somewhat to the competitiveness of the start of the year. In these races we are not bringing anything, but the car is still competitive and this allows us to stay up front. Obviously, though, when updates are brought, they also have to work. Whoever manages to bring not only more novelties but also developments that are effective will make the difference.”
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The updates for Zandvoort
Meanwhile, Mercedes is not standing still. The W17 for Zandvoort features a small aerodynamic update, which Antonelli downplays, hedging his bets: “Here we brought a small thing, but it is only to improve cooling a bit and reduce the car’s aerodynamic drag a little, but it is not a performance update. If it is, even better, but from the numbers it seems very small. We will see on track.”
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