Mercedes focus their efforts elsewhere, as there’s no new front wing on the menu

Mercedes have arrived at the Spanish Grand Prix with new components for the W16, as some notable alterations have been made to the floor and rear wing assembly.

However, unlike many of their rivals, they don’t have a new front wing at their disposal to combat the incoming revisions to the front wing load and deflection tests, as they pulled the trigger on that early.

Focus on the floor, rather than the front wing

Mercedes introduced a more robust front wing design at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with a number of features altered as a consequence of the overall flexibility of the assembly being adjusted, something that’s been noted from the onboard footage in the aftermath.

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For Spain the changes that have been introduced are further down the aerodynamic chain, with the floor modified to make use of the renewed flow structures that are reaching it, having seen the front wing and front suspension modified just a few races ago.

There are changes to the floor fences ahead of this, with the innermost fence adjusted in order to improve how it responds to the incoming flow structures and therefore manage that flow more effectively downstream too.

In the case of the floor edge wing, the alterations are not subtle, with the upswept and strake-lined region at the front of the element now extended much further rearward than before.

This has resulted in a change in the chord of the upswept section too, whilst there’s now eight strakes present, rather than six, resulting in their position relative to one another and their angle of attack also adjusted as a consequence.

Mercedes have also added a new rear wing solution into their availability pool in Spain, with this variant, which is on the higher end of the downforce and drag spectrum, also set to be used at other venues with similar characteristics to the Barcelona circuit.

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