(Motorsport-Total.com) – Ferrari is a bit of a mystery for Mercedes: “We are a bit surprised that Ferrari can flood the car with these huge updates in this way,” said Motorsport chief Toto Wolff a few weeks ago about the Scuderia’s upgrade offensive.
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The Austrian was surprised that Ferrari apparently can bring extensive improvements from race to race without running into trouble with the budget cap. Although a new regulation offers enormous development opportunities, Formula 1 teams must of course also manage their resources in 2026 – including Mercedes.
“At the beginning of a regulation cycle, the wind tunnel runs at full speed and spits out X tenths of a second weekly or monthly,” says deputy team principal Bradley Lord. “The decision you have to make is: When do you convert this performance into parts, and is it most efficient and effective to do this in small steps or in a larger package?”
So far, the Silver Arrows have chosen to be less aggressive with developments and to bring fewer parts compared to the competition. With 20 different upgrades so far, Mercedes has introduced the second fewest improvements of all eleven teams behind Alpine (18). For comparison: Ferrari has already listed 32 upgrades.
Of course, it is always a question of how well the upgrades can be integrated into the existing package. Some components can be easily attached to the floor, for example, while others require a brand-new floor and a completely new architecture.
“Ideally, the performance upgrade coincides exactly with the time when this floor has served its purpose and you need a fresh one anyway – which then becomes an improved one,” says Lord. “Timing all this perfectly is the real art.”
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“What we did in the first half of the season: We brought a big main package after Montreal, but there were smaller things and details at every race, both visible on the aerodynamics side and in the official releases as well as in calibrations, controls, and all the subtleties of this formula,” he explains.
“That has been enough so far to keep us right at the front in the fight – regardless of the fact that others may have brought a few bigger packages.”
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In addition, Mercedes already brought the first big update in Melbourne, after only presenting an initial version of the car at the launch. But: That was probably the case for all teams.
“The second came in Montreal, and after the summer break there is now again a considerable amount of performance in production, making its way to then be added to the car from the races after the shutdown,” he promises further timely improvements.
But he also knows: “In the end, you can only bring the performance you find in the wind tunnel.” Mercedes fans can be reassured in this regard: “We still have a very steep progress curve.”
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