Mercedes W13 upgrades for the United States Grand Prix revealed
Mercedes revealed their intention to bring an upgraded W13 to Austin, with the full list of changes now out in the open.
The Silver Arrows have endured a season which has fallen below their expectations, with four rounds remaining for the team to avoid a winless campaign, something which has not happened since 2011.
And Mercedes have now unleashed their final upgrade package of the season at the Circuit of The Americas, these alterations focused on the wings and floor.
The front wing has been given a performance upgrade to improve flow conditioning, to be achieved by a reducing the camber of the front wing tip, while additional slot gap separators have been added.
The changes then ‘reduce wing tip loading, improving onset flow to the front drum deflector, which in turn improves tyre squirt management and flow to the rear of the car. The slot gap separators improve the rigidity of final two front wing elements’.
The floor fences have also been tweaked for the same purpose, via a small alteration to the floor fence camber. Mercedes expect this to improve the flow quality to the rear of the W13 ‘which in turn increases diffuser load, whilst maintaining front of floor load’.
In addition, the floor edge has been altered with the aim of increasing the load on the front edge wing and floor overall, without sacrificing diffuser load.
Plus, the W13 will be sporting a reprofiled rear wing endplate, which is designed to create ‘more upper rear wing load’ in ‘all on-track conditions’.
An extra winglet has also been added underneath the floor edge to improve airflow to the tyre flank and diffuser area, as well as to create an increase in local load.
Mercedes confirmed that the floor will not be upgraded again this season.
Novedades en los coches para Austin
Car updates for Austin#f1 #USAGP pic.twitter.com/TMVJ0wgJSa
— Albert Fabrega (@AlbertFabrega) October 21, 2022
Although this sounds like an extensive set of changes, Mercedes principal Toto Wolff has urged that nothing “drastic” should be expected in terms of how they may boost their performance.
“We need to use the limited track time available to make strides forward for this season and generate as much learning as we can in the development race for 2023 – those two aims are one and the same,” said Wolff.
“Our final update package of the year will be brought to Austin. It won’t drastically change our fortunes, but we are hopeful it will bring us a step forward and closer to the front-runners.”
Alpine and Alfa Romeo have also brought upgraded floors to the Circuit of The Americas.
Read more: The key storylines to emerge from the United States GP press conferences