“Every year, we reset our focus and define the right objectives,” said Toto Wolff, CEO of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Racing Team. “That may sound simple but it’s damn hard and is probably why there are no sports teams out there with seven consecutive titles. So many things can happen and it’s very natural to get used to success, and therefore not fight as hard for it.”

“But this team has not shown any of that. I see the same fire, hunger and passion now as I did the first time I walked through the doors in 2013. Every season presents a new challenge and therefore, a new goal for us to achieve. 2021 brings changes to the regulations, which could impact our competitiveness, plus the cost cap and working on the major rule changes of 2022. These challenges excite us,” he said when introducing the latest racing machine of the team for the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship.

E PERFORMANCE label added
The car is designated ‘W12 E Performance’ and is the team’s first car to use the ‘E PERFORMANCE’ designation. ‘E PERFORMANCE’ is the new technology label that will be used in product names and badges on all forthcoming Mercedes-AMG performance hybrid cars – which feature direct cascade technology from F1 and, in particular, the work of Mercedes AMG High Performance. The designation for the new F1 car therefore signifies closer alignment to the performance division of Mercedes-Benz.

The team’s closer cooperation with AMG is also reflected in the new 2021 livery, with AMG branding replacing the star pattern on the engine cover which now fades to Mercedes’ traditional racing silver from the black base livery introduced in 2020.

The most prominent colour remains the iconic green of Title Partner PETRONAS on the front and rear wings, nose, mirrors and halo, with the parallel green and silver stripes on the flanks of the car symbolising more than a decade of partnership between Mercedes and Malaysia’s petroleum corporation. The visual identity is completed by the burgundy of team shareholder and Principal Partner INEOS, which features on the airbox and the inside of the front wing endplates.

Significant aero changes
The biggest technical challenge on the 2021 F1 cars has been adapting to the new aerodynamic regulations, with the introduction of several significant changes to key performance areas on the car.

“If you’re looking to slow a car down, which is effectively what the regulation changes were intended to do, modifying the floor is by far the easiest and cheapest way of achieving your objective,” said James Allison. “The floor is such an important aerodynamic component that small geometrical changes bring large reductions in performance. Once the rules had been established, our task was to figure out how to recover the losses brought by the changes.”

That has been a significant challenge for our designers, trying to claw back performance from these regulation changes. The aerodynamic changes have been a key focus in the development of the W12 although some of the parts on our new car are identical to the previous car, owing to the new carryover rules. In some ways, this has lessened the peak of work required for the new car, but it’s also produced its own new challenges and difficulties.

Carrying over parts
“What’s carried over will look different from team to team, because the rules didn’t require you to carry over the same things,” explained Allison. “The rules freeze a large chunk of the car but then give each team two tokens to spend on changing their car. Along with the tokens comes a shopping list showing how many tokens are required for each change. How teams decided what to use their tokens on was entirely up to them.”

In addition, there are some parts of the car that you can change token-free, eg the Power Unit, the cooling systems, the suspension and all of the aerodynamic surfaces. Once the racing gets underway, pretty much everything under the skin of the car must then be frozen for the entire year. With the specific permission of the FIA, changes for reliability or cost saving can be made, but if part of the car isn’t performing well, that won’t be an acceptable reason.

There are also new Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions coming into force this year, with the general amount of time allocated for wind tunnel testing and CFD testing being reduced. On top of that is a form of handicapping, granting teams less or more access to these aerodynamic tools depending on their championship position. Because of the team’s Championship victory in 2020, they will have 22% less access in 2021 compared to the last-placed team.

Pirelli is introducing a new, more durable tyre this season, which teams trialled last year in Portimao, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. None of the teams have had a lot of experience with it and with only 3 days of pre-season testing this year, every lap on track will count to get up to speed with these new tyres.

Finding the edge with the Power Unit
Developing the new M12 Power Unit, Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains have been chasing every possible improvement to deliver a step forward when it hits the track in all eight of the cars it will power this season.

“We are going into the eighth season of pretty stable regulations, so we have a good understanding of the current hybrid engines,” said Hywel Thomas. “Our new product is a characteristic Mercedes-AMG Power Unit, but we’ve worked hard to take the next development step. Stable regulations mean that it’s getting increasingly challenging to unlock additional performance, so you need a focused approach.

“We identified three main areas to work on: the development of the technology in the Power Unit; reliability; and some design issues identified last year. And we’ve also got some completely new innovations that will be in the racing PU for the first time,” he said.

The hunt for every ounce of performance possible in the Power Unit has been emphasised even further by the regulation changes for 2021, which allow only a single performance specification of hardware rather than introducing upgrades at different points throughout the season.

“Starting in 2022, F1 engines will be powered using E10 fuels – so fuels that contain 10% ethanol,” said Hywel. “This might not sound like a radical change, but it changes the combustion process significantly, so there’s a lot of development work to be done.“

“Obviously, the biggest changes in 2022 are on the chassis side, which are enormous. That also impacts all of us because putting the PU into a completely new chassis means there will be some changes where the PU is mounted. As the chassis engineers become more knowledgeable on what they need for the car to go quickly, and how they need to position all the systems within the chassis, the impact on the PU will become clearer as well,” he said.

Working under the cost cap
Perhaps the biggest challenge for the team this season will be working under the new cost cap regulations. The budgets of all F1 teams are capped at US$145 million (about RM587.25 million) for the entire 2021 season and this has required significant work behind the scenes to adapt to this new constraint. It’s also prompted the team to adapt its organisation, including the creation of Applied Science – the high-technology engineering arm of the business.

The same duo in the cockpits
With Lewis Hamilton finally signing on the dotted line for another year, and Valtteri Bottas already confirmed earlier, the team will have both drivers from the 2020 season driving for them again. “I think the consistency we’ve had within this team over the years has been a real strength and advantage of ours,” said Wolff. “As we’ve seen in past seasons, it’s a line-up that works well for us, with two incredibly strong drivers who also have a very professional working relationship together. Both are hungry and fired-up to get back racing again soon and we’re all looking forward to seeing them drive our new car in anger for the first time in a few weeks.”

Opening F1 round in Australia postponed, Chinese GP date to be rescheduled