Mercedes will present its 2017 F1 challenger on February 23rd at the Silverstone circuit in Great Britain.
The triple world champions became the second Formula 1 team announcing a launch date. Ferrari will show their car a day later – on February 24th.
Mercedes will use one of its film days as a pre-test shakedown for the brand new F1 W08. The team announced competition for fans, granting VIP access to the launch and a special meet-and-greet with its drivers.
It is still not officially announced who will be Lewis Hamilton’s teammate during the new season. Mercedes allegedly recruited Valtteri Bottas. That became possible after Williams persuaded Felipe Massa to postpone his retirement for a year. Pascal Wehrlein agreed to join Sauber.
Meanwhile Ferrari requested clarification over high-tech suspension systems, which Mercedes and Red Bull used during the 2016 F1 season. The system in question is an alternative to the banned in 2014 FRIC (Front and Rear InterConnected suspension). Mercedes and Red Bull used their versions in different ways. For the Brackley team it helped in balancing the car, while the one from Milton Keynes managed to exploit the concept in connection with their radical rake angles.
Now the technology is in doubt after Ferrari’s chief designer Simone Resta asked FIA’s technical delegate Charlie Whiting for clarification
Whiting answered that according to him the proposed system could be in breach of Article 3.15, which prohibits moveable aerodynamic devices.
Resta states in the letter, quoted by motorsport.com, the following: “We are considering a family of suspension devices that we believe could offer a performance improvement. In all cases they would be installed between some combination of the sprung part of the car and the two suspension rockers on a single axle, and achieve an effect similar to that of a FRIC system (Front Rear InterConnected suspension) without requiring any connection between the front and rear of the car.”
“All suspension devices in question feature a moveable spring seat and they use energy recovered from wheel loads and displacements to alter the position of the heave spring.”
Whiting response was that such devices “would be likely to contravene Article 3.15 of the F1 Technical Regulations”. This interpretation could be decision grounds for race stewards if there are complaints at a later stage.
