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Mercedes Offer a Behind-the-Scenes Look at their 2020 F1 Car Launch

Published 04/22/2020, 1:28 PM EDT

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Building a fully functioning F1 car is no easy feat. The Williams F1 team explained this during Season 2 of Formula One: Drive to Survive. However, the Mercedes F1 team released a video, which offered a sneak peek of the factory a day before launching the 2020 car. Normally, a working F1 car can take a few hours to assemble and disassemble during race weekends.

Ahead of the Mercedes W11 debut, the team invited Sky Sports to an early look at the new car. When Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz spoke to key team personnel, they revealed that work began way back in late 2018, around November and December. According to James Allison, the teams chief designer and some of his trusted cohorts would have come up with the concept.

The technical director disclosed that at least 5-6 people are involved in that department. Also, the team operates in a calm and disciplined manner, and there is no last minute scrambling for part, bits and bolts. However, Allison dismissed that notion and admitted that the calm exterior is just a front, while there is a lot of action going on.

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How was the 2020 Mercedes F1 Car born?

First and foremost, the Brixworth team created the engine and the transmission. They even got it up and running since Christmas 2018. Allison harked back to a time where all of this paraphernalia got assembled and clocked barely 50-100 kilometres. However, in today’s day and age, these engines normally clock in 1000s of kilometres.

The next items of order are the hubs, axles, suspension and other such important parts. Since they were all new designs, they all had to undergo tests to gauge their durability. Next on the agenda is the chassis, which is a complex piece of machinery. Interestingly, the car is not ‘complete’ until it leaves the garage.

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Finally, the team deals with the aerodynamic aspects of the W11. This includes the front and rear wing, bargeboards, floor, body and the diffuser. Everybody in the factory faces around half a year’s worth of pressure and stress. However, all their hard work is usually worth it in the end, when they produce a race-winning car.

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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