Allison contradicts Wolff over this season's Mercedes upgrade plans
Jun.30 - Mercedes' technical chief has contradicted boss Toto Wolff's claims that the reigning champions will not put "another minute of development" into the 2021 car.
In Austria last weekend, it became clear that the tide has definitely turned in Formula 1 as Red Bull's championship leader Max Verstappen dominantly won.
Afterwards, Lewis Hamilton called for urgent updates.
"I would love to have an upgrade," said the seven time world champion, who now trails his Dutch rival by 18 points.
"But I don't think it's in the pipeline."
Team boss Wolff confirmed that, telling Osterreich newspaper this week that he stands by his decision to call a total stop to 2021 car development.
"I said quite frankly that we won't put another minute of development time into the current car, and we have been on that course since May," he said.
"It's like 2013, when we did everything we can to get out of the blocks from 2014."
According to Wolff, Hamilton understands the decision.
"I had two hours on the plane with him to talk about it and we see the situation similarly. It is not always the fastest car that wins, but the best team," said the Austrian.
However, Mercedes' outgoing technical director James Allison, who is stepping into a less intensive role from July, says the team actually has "a reasonable number of things to come that will make us faster in future races".
"Hopefully it's enough," international media reports quote him as saying.
When told that his news is at odds with Wolff's, Allison insisted: "I don't think it's contradictory and I don't think Toto said it exactly like that.
"Toto pointed out that next year's rule change is a big deal and will take much of our attention. Yes, the factory is mainly focused on finding performance for next year.
"But that doesn't mean there won't be anything until then," he added.
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Hmmmmm, all within the rules but how apt just as RB get on a roll
Mercedes have been declared as one of four teams to be allowed extra time in the wind tunnel to test aerodynamic parts this season.
A re-adjustment of time allowances has enabled Mercedes to undertake more wind-tunnel testing for their parts, due to their current position in the Constructors’ Championship.
The planned mid-season change sees the Silver Arrows, along with Alpine, Aston Martin and Haas being offered a higher amount of wind tunnel runs than last year due to being lower in the standings than this time last year.
Conversely, Red Bull, Ferrari, AlphaTauri and Williams will be allowed less time to develop aerodynamic parts in their wind tunnels as they have improved on their Constructors’ position from last season, with only McLaren and Alfa Romeo currently occupying the same positions.
Wind tunnel use is regulated through aerodynamic testing regulations (ATR), which set a base limit of 40 runs in a wind tunnel per week along with other technical usage limits.
But ATR also acts as a system whereby a team’s allocated use of a wind tunnel changes depending on their ranking in the Constructors’ standings.
This means that the lower a team is in the championship, the more time they are allowed in the wind tunnel to develop their aero package – which also acts as a way of trying to even out aero performance among the teams, like the handicap system in golf to provide, in theory, equal footing.
With each place lost in the Constructors’ standings comes a 2.5% increase in time allowed in the wind tunnel so, with Mercedes and Red Bull swapping positions, there is a net 5% swing in Mercedes’ favour to test aero parts.
Chief technical officer James Allison has stated that upgrades will be coming to the Mercedes W12 in the upcoming races, but the team is likely to be spending the majority of its time in the wind tunnel testing parts for their 2022 car – which is likely to be the case up and down the grid.
Despite that, any extra time they spend testing and refining their ideas on their 2021 car could make a difference in the fight for both championships this season.
The ATR will reset again once the season is over, based on the teams’ final positions in the Constructors’ Championship. The wind tunnel time allowance increments double to 5% per place depending on where they finish, in the hope of levelling out the playing field even further for the lower-ranked cars.
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