James Allison says the work on the rear-end of the Mercedes W11 car to be presented for 2020 F1 seasons, was already thought about in 2018.
It is not surprising that Mercedes already had parts of the car thought about so early but the surprise part is the admission of it, as usually F1 teams refrain from shelling out such details. Even during the 2019 season, no one had clear answer on 2020 work.
With the regulations for 2020 more or less stable and a decision on 2021 pending, Mercedes took the liberty to think as to how the car will be in two years time while competing in 2018 F1 season. Not only them but it could be others too.
“It seems like a blink of an eye, from when the chequered flag fell in Abu Dhabi, but here we are approaching a new season with days fast disappearing before we will be in Melbourne,” said Mercedes F1 technical chief Allison.
“Although for many of the people who watch the sport, it seems like we finish the season and magically show up with a new car in just a few short weeks later. The process of actually getting there is a lot longer and there’s a lot involved in that.
“The car that we will be showing up in Melbourne, the first thought that went into the tail-end of the car, was in 2018. So, think about that for a moment, the whole of the 2019 season hadn’t happened, we hadn’t even run our 2019 car, we only started bits of it in our factory around the time that we were thinking what we were going to do in 2020.
“So, all the way back in 2018, the tail-end of the car was thought about but that process is a long one, it starts very gradually and it tapers up to an enormous explosion of activity which happens in the months before Christmas and the two-three months we have in the New Year ahead of winter testing and then pushing on into Melbourne.”
Mercedes will have an online launch of its 2020 F1 car on February 14 with AlphaTauri also scheduled for the same day. The W11 is also to have its shakedown at Silverstone where both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas may have a go for few laps.
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