New Mercedes front wing design tipped to bring ‘significant lap time gain’

Mercedes’ new front wing has been tipped to provide the F1 team with a much-needed “significant lap time gain” at certain circuits.

The German manufacturer introduced an updated front wing design at the Monaco Grand Prix which did not feature the previous ‘legality strip’ element as part of a change in development path, with Mercedes still battling to cure the W15’s biggest weakness - its inconsistent performance in both high and low speed corners.

George Russell ran the updated design in Monaco after Lewis Hamilton proposed his teammate should use the only version of the front wing in Monaco. Both drivers are set to have the revised front wing at the next race in Canada.

Analysing the impact of the change, F1 expert Mark Hughes wrote on F1.com: "The new wing is entirely re-profiled and has been designed to give more consistent traits throughout the speed range of the car. There is expected to be less of a balance change through the speed range.

“Around Monaco, which is almost all low-speed corners, simulation suggested the new wing would bring a tiny gain. But around circuits with a bigger spread of corner speeds it is expected to bring significant lap time gain.

“Both cars should have the wing in time for the next race, in Montreal, but it’s expected that Barcelona – in two race’s time – will show the full benefit of the wing.

“It could be a step forward in helping to turn around what has been a challenging year so far for the Silver Arrows.”

Hamilton claimed that he lost “two tenths" of a second to Russell in qualifying due to using the team’s older front wing specification.

The seven-time world champion qualified and finished seventh, two places behind Russell.

According to Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin, the update delivered the expected gains in Monaco.

“All the data we have seen says that it was delivering performance, it was bringing a benefit,” Shovlin explained in Mercedes’ post-race debrief video.

“In terms of how the car was feeling, George was was happy with with that and he could feel that it was a step in the right direction. So we’re definitely happy with what we’ve seen to date.

“But we will learn more in Montreal and then particularly when you get to a track like Barcelona with a wider corner speed range, you can really start to learn about it there.”