Mercedes continues relentless development push at Silverstone
Having secured the second successive victory after last weekend's Spielberg round, Mercedes have introduced a raft of aerodynamic upgrades on its W15 at this weekend's Silverstone round.
Having brought a series of upgrades in recent races, Mercedes continued its development push at Silverstone, submitting three circuit-specific and a performance upgrade for the British Grand Prix.
For Round 12 of the 2024 F1 season, the Anglo-German team made a trimmed front wing flap available. The aim was to reduce front wing load to achieve sensible car balance between the front and the rear end of the W15. Mercedes will be able to use the trimmed flap if a low downforce rear wing is chosen in one of the remaining races.
The modified rear wing features a reprofiled flap. The team noted that “reducing local flap curvature reduces local flap load and offloads the mainplane - results in a lower downforce and lower drag upper wing.”
Moreover, the team came up with a smaller front brake duct inlet which is due to the low braking requirements of the Silverstone circuit where drivers only apply brakes hard twice.
Mercedes brought a performance update to the rear corner of its W15 as well. The upper cake lip has been realigned in order to improve "flow attachment through a range of conditions resulting in more local load."
