The revamp that failed to help Mercedes win in Monaco
Mercedes has always had a weakness at slow speed circuits, with its long wheelbase and tyre characteristics not perfect for Formula 1 venues like Monaco and Singapore.
But with a tight battle on its hands against Red Bull, which excels at such venues, the world champion team pulled out the stops with a suspension revamp aimed to cure its Achilles Heel.
Whether the changes helped or not we will never know, as Valtteri Bottas was able to extract more from his car over the weekend than Lewis Hamilton.
But it was clear that the scope of the revisions certainly left Mercedes chasing an understanding of how best to extract pace from the car and tyres – which could well have played a factor in its disappointing result.
Sweeping changes
Mercedes' progress in the opening races of the season has mainly come from understanding and applying the right set-up, be it mechanical or aerodynamic, with the visible rear end instability seen during pre season dialed out with the help of only a few subtle updates.
However, the team introduced probably its most visible upgrade of the season so far in Monaco, as a new steering, suspension and brake assembly arrangement was deployed.
The low speed challenges of the Monte Carlo street circuit are like no other on the calendar and so all of the teams make concessions for this.
But, with a limousine-like wheelbase, the W12 perhaps needs a little more of a helping hand than most when it comes to navigating the likes of the famous Fairmont hairpin.
As can be seen in this comparison of the car from above, the track rod and lower wishbone were redesigned in order that they met the upright further forward than they had before.
The track rod (yellow dotted line) is not only broader but it's clear to see how much more dominant the flexure is where it meets with the brake duct inlet (inset).
There's also a much larger gap between the two elements, as can be seen with the green dotted line on the forward arm of the lower wishbone.
Clearly changes made by the team to help improve the low speed maneuverability of the W12 had a knock-on effect to the design of the brake duct too.
The changes made to accommodate a revised track rod and wishbone layout are made clear by the bulkier enclosure for the track rod (highlighted in yellow), which meant that to get a similar volume for the section of the inlet that's meshed off (highlighted in blue) the team had to sacrifice the rest of the inlet and make changes to how it was partitioned.
This means that the space is divided by just a single spar, rather than being divided by another horizontal section as in the normal arrangement.
This also goes to show how the brake duct is used both as a way of cooling the brakes and as a medium for moving airflow through the assembly for aerodynamic gain, with the latter sacrificed to maintain the required level of cooling for the street track.
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