Mercedes says work on their 2021 car will continue until 48 hours before it is launched on March 2.
The reigning world champions ended work on last year’s dominant W11 earlier than most to focus on this year’s design, which will be called the W12 E Performance.
And though all teams face limitations on development, including a freeze on some key components, Mercedes still has plenty of areas of address with the mandated changes to the floor and diffuser as well as adapting to the outlawing of their DAS device.
“The most intense and difficult thing for us is reacting to the aerodynamic changes that come for 2021,” said technical director James Allison.
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“There was a concern that if we left the aerodynamic development of these cars unchecked then the performance would just keep increasing, as it has been doing it for a number of seasons now.
“It would keep increasing to a level where the cars would just simply outgrow the tyres and perhaps even aspects of the circuits.
“There was a good need to bring the performance down a bit from the cars so that they would be able to go into the (2021) season with the mechanical packages designed for 2020, and be confident that the performance of the car would be matched to the physical infrastructure that the car was built around.”
But the efforts to regain the lost performance mean Mercedes intend to push work on the W12 until the last moment.
“The car is far from finished,” team boss Toto Wolff is quoted as telling German broadcaster RTL.
“It won’t be ready until the final moments leading up to the shakedown, say about 48 hours in advance. At the moment there is not much of the car to see.
“Right now, it looks like someone’s tipped a full lego box around. However, it is impressive to see how the puzzle pieces will fall into place in the run-up to those 48 hours before the shakedown.”
On Tuesday, Mercedes confirmed the car will be unveiled in a digital launch on March 2 although, as Wolff alluded to, a shakedown at Silverstone is still expected at some point before testing in Bahrain on March 12-14.
Of course, the one unknown still hanging over the Brackley-based team is the future of Lewis Hamilton, with the seven-time F1 champion yet to sign a new deal, although recent signs have indicated that will happen sooner rather than later.