© Finn Pomeroy for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
BBC’s Andrew Benson reports Red Bull’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey said he finds a specific part of the Mercedes W15 “interesting”.
In his BBC column, F1 reporter Andrew Benson wrote that Red Bull’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey expressed his interest in the ‘innovation’ Mercedes has introduced with their 2024 car.
“Newey said at his car’s launch that there was an innovation on the Mercedes that he found ‘interesting’ although he would not reveal what it was,” Benson wrote.
“The suspicion is that he was referring to the front wing design,” he concluded.
Benson is referring to the W15 front wing that connects to the nose at the second flap and the fourth flap with what appears to be a wire.
When the W15 was revealed, questions were raised about the front wing’s legality, but according to formu1a.uno. the “insiders from two teams have confirmed there appears little reason for the W15 front wing to be deemed illegal”, adding that the design is receiving “the green light from the FIA”.
On the first day of pre-season testing, Sky Sports F1’s reporter Ted Kravitz praised the German team’s solution.
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“It is a genius move, so credit to John Owen the designer here who has come up with that bit of magic on the front wing,” Kravitz said.
“Hats off to their aero team. It’s such a lovely idea. Had they just stood still and developed what was an okay car – they got to the point where they could do some bits with it at the end of the year – then that would have been all right.
“But they had to find a second per lap. Now that’s the big question for me, is this Mercedes a second per lap quicker than last year’s Mercedes?
“Well John Owen the designer will certainly hope so, the ideas with this front wing and trying to recreate the Y250 vortex, that’s the middle section, to try and get the air inside, through those front wheels.
“It’s a nice idea, is it going to work, are the rest of the things going to work as well? We will find out,” the Briton concluded.
