Despite teasing a camo livery since the beginning of the week, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team unveiled the W10 with a traditional livery accompanied with some subtle changes – Petronas green rims and a new style engine cover.
Besides the new look, the W10 also boasts a number of noticeable aero changes to comply with the new 2019 FIA Formula 1 season regulations.
The W10, like the rest of the field, is wider, higher and simplified front and rear wings, intended to help to chase drivers follow the car in front more closely – and therefore increase the possibility of overtaking.
Mercedes’s Technical Director James Allison explains that what differs Mercedes from the rest of the launches to date is its complex interpretation of the rule changes.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1, Silverstone Valtteri Bottas, Shakedown
“Regulation changes are both opportunity and threat,” said Allison.
“They are an opportunity because all the old assumptions about what you need to have to be quick are swept away and, if you are fleet of foot and smart in dealing with that, you can do better than all the other teams that are tackling the same change.
“Even though the minimum weight limit was lifted by 10kg for 2019, weight reduction remains a real challenge on the current generation of F1 cars. Components that we felt were stripped to the bone in 2018 have been taken, one by one, and subjected to a further round of aggressive analysis to shave further weight from them”.
Despite significant changes to many areas of the car, the W10 also retains some of the characteristics of its predecessors, as the general architecture and the wheelbase stay the same.
“A close inspection will reveal that the execution of this concept has been further refined,” added Allison
“Every item is pushed tighter, made more slender – each change permitting us to improve the aerodynamic performance beyond what would have been possible had we accepted the physical limitations of the 2018 design.”
