Earlier this week the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team revealed its challenger for the 2021 season, which gets underway in Australia in mid-March. Officially called the Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance, the Formula One racecar was shown in the new race bays at the team’s Brackley, England, technical center, officially opening a facility that has been 18 months in the making.
It is the team’s first car to use the E Performance designation, signifying its closer alignment with the Mercedes-AMG production-car performance division in the future. More on that later. That technology label will be used in product names and badges on all forthcoming Mercedes-AMG performance hybrid cars, which feature a direct cascade of technology from F1 and the work of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) in Brixworth, England.
In many ways, the F1 racing series has been at the forefront of electrification through its strong hybridization program since 2014. That year saw the most significant rule changes in F1 history, with normally aspirated, 2.4-L V8 engines being replaced by “power units” incorporating 1.6-L turbocharged V6 engines and hybrid energy recovery systems. The FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) claimed at the time that the change gave the sport a much cleaner and greener image more relevant to developing road-car technologies.
Since the major rule shake-up in 2014, Mercedes has become one of the most successful teams in F1 history, having achieved consecutive Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships every year since—from 2014 to 2020. So, when the team launches a new car, the other teams watch closely.
Significant aero changes for 2021
While drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas return, the new season marks the beginning of a new chapter for the team following the announcement late last year that Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team; Daimler; and Ineos will be equal shareholders.
“The fact that we were able to attract Ineos as an investor shows that we have a strong business case and that F1 continues to be a highly attractive platform for big brands and companies,” said Wolf. “We’re also seeing a slight shift in the way that F1 teams operate as the cost cap and the new structure move us towards a business model that is more familiar in American sports franchises.”
“This is a unique opportunity to make a financial investment in a team at the very top of its game, but which still has rich potential to grow in the future,” added Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Chairman of Ineos.
According to the team, the biggest technical challenge on the 2021 F1 car has been adapting to the new aerodynamic regulations, with the introduction of several significant changes to key performance areas on the car focusing on the floor.
“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, Technical Director of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team. “The floor is such an important aerodynamic component that small geometrical changes bring large reductions in performance.”
The significant challenges for the team designers have been how to claw back performance from the regulation changes to four key areas of the floor. They include a triangular cut-out on the edge of the floor in front of the rear wheels. The span of the rear brake duct winglets is reduced by a few centimeters. The height was reduced for the two inboard strakes nearest the car centerline in the diffuser. The slots in the floor around the bargeboards have been sealed.
However, many parts of the new car are identical to the previous W11, owing to the new carryover rules. In some ways, this lessened the peak work required for the new car, but it’s also produced its own challenges and difficulties.
“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 decide what to use their tokens on is entirely up to them. Some parts of the car can be changed token-free such as the power unit, cooling systems, suspension, and aerodynamic surfaces.
The significant aerodynamic changes to the floor and adapting to the carryover rules have kept the Mercedes team busy, but there are opportunities for improvement in many areas of the car.
“Our other aerodynamic work has been the normal fare of seeking out aerodynamic opportunity across every square centimeter of the car, with particular attention to finding places where we can invest extra weight into fancier aerodynamic geometry,” Allison added.
For 2021, the cars can be 6 kg (13 lb) heavier, and an additional few kilograms are available as a result of DAS (dual-axis steering) being banned. Beyond this, the carryover rules “have confined us to figuring out how we can make some parts live longer, so we don’t have to replace or buy them so often,” said Allison.
New aerodynamic testing restrictions (ATRs) also come into force in 2021, with the general amount of time allocated for wind-tunnel and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) 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.
“Therefore, because of our Championship victory in 2020, we will have 22% less access in 2021 compared to the last-placed team,” said Allison.
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 $145 million for the 2021 season. This prompted the Mercedes team to adapt its organization, including the creation of the Applied Science division—the high-technology engineering arm of the business.
“We had to change the structure of our team, the way we work with each other, streamline our processes, and become more efficient,” said Wolff. “That’s why we set up Applied Science, bringing F1 know-how to many different customers, and it’s going to really play a big part in our evolving business.”
The carryover rules for 2021 have somewhat cushioned the impact on this year’s car, but as the year progresses and attention turns to 2022, the cost cap constraints will be felt more keenly.
Big changes, greater sustainability in 2022
The Mercedes AMG HPP unit is working on significant modifications to the 2022 car due to sweeping new regulations. While the changes on the power unit are not quite as revolutionary as on the chassis side, F1 engines will be using E10 (10% ethanol) fuels.
“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,” said Hywel Thomas, Managing Director of Mercedes AMG HPP. “There are also some changes around the ERS components.”
Working to make the team more sustainable is an important focus. After achieving a net-zero carbon footprint at the factories in 2020, it became just the second F1 team to be awarded FIA Three-Star Environmental Accreditation late last year.
“We’re continuing to push forward with our sustainability projects in 2021, with the aim of cutting our CO2 footprint by 50% by 2022 compared to 2018,” said Wolff. “Working alongside our title partner Petronas, the first step in the direction of sustainable fuel is the introduction of the E10 fuel for 2022.”
However, all power-unit and fuel manufacturers are looking further down the line to a 100% sustainable fuel. In December, FIA announced the first barrels of 100% sustainable fuel, made from biowaste and developed to stringent F1 specifications, had been delivered to power unit manufacturers as the governing body commits to becoming carbon neutral from 2021 and net-zero by 2030.
Making the connection to production
The Mercedes-AMG production car operation in Affalterbach, Germany, and the racing team are strengthening their ties. This translates into expanded pooling of the motorsport activities at the Mercedes-AMG high-performance brand and more tech transfer of future-oriented, electrified technologies for motor racing and the road. The design of the F1 racecar for the new season visually underscores the closer alliance and brand identity.
The company views it as the right time to take the cooperation to the next level as the first Project ONE hypercars, which uses Formula 1 technology “nearly one-to-one on the road,” are scheduled for delivery to customers this year. That project heralds the new performance-oriented electrification strategy at AMG.
“Under the E Performance technology label, we are advancing our interpretation of a powerful and efficient hybrid technology for the future road-going models,” said Philipp Schiemer, Chairman of the Board of Mercedes-AMG GmbH.
The stepped-up cooperation will speed the transfer of knowledge and technologies between Brackley, Brixworth, and Affalterbach.
“In the elite class of motorsport, the current hybrid power units are not only extremely powerful, but they also have tremendous thermal efficiency—characteristics that we also pursue in our series models,” said Jochen Hermann, Member of Management and CTO of Mercedes-AMG GmbH. “Through the close exchange, we can use a multitude of experience and technologies from Formula 1 in our performance hybrids for the road.”
Since 2012, Mercedes-AMG, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, and Mercedes-AMG HPP have worked closely on many projects.
The latest example is the electric turbocharger, which has been proven under extreme F1 conditions and will soon be used in AMG production models. There is also close cooperation in sharing experiences in simulation technology during development phases and in operating strategies for batteries and hybrids. Further technology cascade and developments from Formula 1 are planned, including the cell technology and cooling requirements of high-performance batteries.
The closer cooperation also includes other motorsport activities at Mercedes-AMG including its growing customer sport program in the FIA GT3 and GT4 racing series.
