As part of the rules aimed at helping teams in financial difficulty due to the coronavirus pandemic, a chassis freeze was established for 2021 and the teams had to use the same cars already lined up on the track in 2020.
Lawmakers, however, have allowed teams to bring limited updates, restricted to two tokens whose specific weight has changed depending on the part of the car involved in the development.
Over the course of the presentation of the W12, Mercedes was quite cryptic about how it had spent its tokens. The technical director of the team, James Allison, said: “There are some parts of the car that can be changed without tokens, for example the control unit, the cooling systems, the suspensions and of course all the aerodynamic surfaces”.
“We’ve spent our tokens, but we don’t want to reveal how we used them yet. We’ll reveal that in due course.”
After taking the eighth consecutive Constructors’ title in Abu Dhabi, it emerged that Mercedes never spent its tokens and the confirmation came from Mike Elliot.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, in the pits
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“I don’t think we’ve actually finished spending the tokens at our disposal. We had ideas for the front of the car, but in reality all of these projects were never realized. “
As part of the token spending rules for 2021, the teams had to make decisions in July 2020 and at the same time inform the FIA which homologated component would be changed.
By regulation, the teams should have communicated to the FIA by July 2020 where they intended to spend the tokens on the ’21 cars. So, with the deadline set for 22 July, Mercedes should have figured out where and how to spend their tokens to improve the aerodynamics of the nose.
Paradoxically, the British GP, which became famous for Hamilton’s victory on three wheels, with the front left dechapped, changed the plans of the Brackley team. The situation prompted the Federation to intervene with the cleaver on the aerodynamic load, cutting the aerodynamic load generated in that part as well.
As we know, the floor and the bargeboards have been cut and restricted, a situation that has significantly penalized Mercedes.
In the face of the regulatory changes, Toto Wolff’s men diverted their attention to the 2021 car at the rear, going to work on the gearbox to change the rake set-up. It was evident, in fact, that with the changes to the aerodynamics, the high-raked cars would have been less penalized than the more neutral front-leaning single-seaters, such as the W11.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, first place
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
The road to modifying the gearbox, however, proved impossible to follow for simple timing reasons: every change for 2021 relating to this component should have been presented in correspondence with the reopening of the factories in June.
Reverse: back to work on the front and nose of what would later be the W12.
But, when the car was put on the track, the loss of aerodynamic load at the front was too evident, without however compromising the overall balance of the car.
“I think when you’ve built a largely dominant car, overall balance isn’t a problem for the drivers,” continues Elliot. “What hindered us in the first few outings of the season was the amount of downforce lost.”
“Obviously we cannot say if we have been penalized more than other cars, because we do not have the data relating to the other cars. What is there for all to see is that the advantage accumulated in 2020 was gone ”, confirms Elliot.
Well aware of the work to be done and of the shortest possible time to spend in the wind tunnel due to the budget cap, Mercedes has preferred to work on the existing package rather than focusing on a possible “new way” linked to the development of the new nose.
This means that, on balance, the Brackley team never spent the tokens expected for the 2021 season. However, this situation allowed Mercedes to secure the eighth consecutive constructors ‘world championship and Lewis Hamilton to fight for the drivers’ title. until the last lap of the Abu Dhabi GP with Max Verstappen.
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