2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

[Lasssept]

[SilviuAgo]

Courtesy of @Vanja:

Mercedes W17 - First Analysis

Simple front wing shown, but very detailed floor fence and sidepods that form a massive wing area

Beautiful sculpting by Mercedes F1 engineers

[Jambier]

For me this will be the benchmark of the first half of the year.

[Matt2725]

Can we get lost with the Max to Merc crap already? It was boring last year, and it's even more boring this year.

[Matt2725]

Courtesy of @Vanja:

Mercedes W17 - First Analysis

Simple front wing shown, but very detailed floor fence and sidepods that form a massive wing area

Beautiful sculpting by Mercedes F1 engineers

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_QgJkjWcAA ... =4096x4096

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_QhEF6WwAA ... name=large

Not sure why Vanja is analysing a render that is quite obviously different to the real thing.

[f1isgood]

For me this will be the benchmark of the first half of the year.

Any specific reasons? I am not confident about Mercedes' aero team just yet. I still think Toto will come to regret the deal he made with McLaren about the engines. Unless Mercedes can eke out the packaging advantage that comes with a new engine regulation, I don't think they'd be better than McLaren. It's not clear to me they have the same strength and depth in their technical team pre budget cap era. But I might be completely mistaken and they'll basically repeat 2014

[PlatinumZealot]

Not the worst looking F1 cars but certainly not great looking either...

Even the 2022-2025 cars looked better overall

I think FIA has too much say over the overall shape of the cars. The noses from 2012 were forced to be lower because Schumacher was nearly poked in the head by a Force India in Abu Dahbi 2010. Then the ugly step noses came, then the vanity panels too hide the ugliness. It was a mess. FIA just lost sight of it all and became ever more strict with the regulation box to keep the noses to some aesthetic standard.

The halo sorts of cancels out the need for low noses so I feel they should liberate the nose shape to what it was pre-2012.

[venkyhere]

So far, most teams have 'revealed' renders and many experts have analyzed them. While we are all sure that the real thing can be completely different when the covers are removed for the Bahrain test, what I find really intriguing, is the front floor fence/bargeboard. For GE era, it was outwashing and the sidepod undercut beautifully married with it, to push out the front wheel wake. This time, we can see the same sidepod undercut, but it's 'inwashing' bargeboard (regulation forced) and the teams have put 'up and out' washing slats in them, to create some semblance of outwash. Not sure if this is really going to the real solution, I have a feeling different teams are going to surprise us with different things, w.r.t 'how to combat the inwashing bargeboard' when the real car is revealed in Bahrain.

[Farnborough]

So far, most teams have 'revealed' renders and many experts have analyzed them. While we are all sure that the real thing can be completely different when the covers are removed for the Bahrain test, what I find really intriguing, is the front floor fence/bargeboard. For GE era, it was outwashing and the sidepod undercut beautifully married with it, to push out the front wheel wake. This time, we can see the same sidepod undercut, but it's 'inwashing' bargeboard (regulation forced) and the teams have put 'up and out' washing slats in them, to create some semblance of outwash. Not sure if this is really going to the real solution, I have a feeling different teams are going to surprise us with different things, w.r.t 'how to combat the inwashing bargeboard' when the real car is revealed in Bahrain.

Agree with the intention, almost "chimney" like in driving the flow vertical, possibly to clear the the general flow along the side of car.
Remember those chimney on older era McLaren, most prominently ? Coming out of sidepod top surface and dispensing hot air through that stylised swooping vent at far outer edge of sidepod extremity.

[Jambier]

For me this will be the benchmark of the first half of the year.

Any specific reasons? I am not confident about Mercedes' aero team just yet. I still think Toto will come to regret the deal he made with McLaren about the engines. Unless Mercedes can eke out the packaging advantage that comes with a new engine regulation, I don't think they'd be better than McLaren. It's not clear to me they have the same strength and depth in their technical team pre budget cap era. But I might be completely mistaken and they'll basically repeat 2014

- End of ground effect car that they never mastered.
- New engine seems the benchmark
- Chassis/PU integration
- Flawless shakedown
- Feeling that they are happy

I don’t see any other team that did that for now.
We also have Alpine but they will not beat Mercedes, they could be a surprise though

But of course let’s wait for winter testing to end but all lights are green for Mercedes right now

[continuum16]

For me this will be the benchmark of the first half of the year.

Any specific reasons? I am not confident about Mercedes' aero team just yet. I still think Toto will come to regret the deal he made with McLaren about the engines. Unless Mercedes can eke out the packaging advantage that comes with a new engine regulation, I don't think they'd be better than McLaren. It's not clear to me they have the same strength and depth in their technical team pre budget cap era. But I might be completely mistaken and they'll basically repeat 2014

- End of ground effect car that they never mastered.
- New engine seems the benchmark
- Chassis/PU integration
- Flawless shakedown
- Feeling that they are happy

I don’t see any other team that did that for now.
We also have Alpine but they will not beat Mercedes, they could be a surprise though

But of course let’s wait for winter testing to end but all lights are green for Mercedes right now

Of the cars we have seen you could definitely make the argument that Merc looks best. But we haven’t seen four cars: Williams (seemingly in crisis mode right now so Merc probably has them covered), a car from Newey, and cars from the two teams who won over 20 races the previous year. It’s far from a sure thing that Merc will be better than all of those. They haven’t made a championship-capable car in five years. That’s a long time, no matter what the ruleset is.

[f1isgood]

For me this will be the benchmark of the first half of the year.

Any specific reasons? I am not confident about Mercedes' aero team just yet. I still think Toto will come to regret the deal he made with McLaren about the engines. Unless Mercedes can eke out the packaging advantage that comes with a new engine regulation, I don't think they'd be better than McLaren. It's not clear to me they have the same strength and depth in their technical team pre budget cap era. But I might be completely mistaken and they'll basically repeat 2014

- End of ground effect car that they never mastered.
- New engine seems the benchmark
- Chassis/PU integration
- Flawless shakedown
- Feeling that they are happy

I don’t see any other team that did that for now.
We also have Alpine but they will not beat Mercedes, they could be a surprise though

But of course let’s wait for winter testing to end but all lights are green for Mercedes right now

I think we can't just ignore the first point. That points to fundamental weakness in their technical organization in my view. But let's wait for winter testing to end. Because so far we have not seen what lights the other teams are flagging

[Lasssept]

[FittingMechanics]

Wow, that is interesting. So many differences. Red Bull only softs, are they not planning to do any long runs?

McLaren, Ferrari and Aston Martin sand bagging (semi serious).

[gearboxtrouble]

It will be cooler relative to what you'd normally expect at the Grand Prix. My guess the softer bias is an attempt to normalize for expected conditions.