Mercedes’ secretive W12 floor revealed as Bahrain F1 test begins
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Get F1 news in your inbox! By signing up to the newsletter you agree to receive emails from that may occasionally include promotional content Leave this field blank Mercedes has finally revealed the floor design on its W12 Formula 1 car as pre-season testing got underway in Bahrain.The reigning world champion squad openly admitted it was deliberately concealing the design details of its floor from its rivals when it launched its new W12 challenger earlier this month.But with pre-season testing beginning on Friday morning in Bahrain, the first images of Mercedes’ floor were captured as the teams lined up their 2021 designs on the grid for a photoshoot.New rules aimed at cutting downforce levels by around 10 percent for this year in a bid to slow down the cars for safety reasons have resulted in added intrigue as to how teams have responded to the new aerodynamic regulations.Despite the significant carry-over from last year, teams have been forced to trim the rear of the floor inwards, as well as removing slots at the front, trimming the diffuser fences and simplifying the rear brake ducts.“The bit we’re not showing you is down along the edge of the floor,” Mercedes technical director James Allison explained at the team’s launch event.Related ArticlesaccImages.createImage(); 2021 Bahrain F1 testing – Live updates Day 1 – Mercedes first to hit troubleaccImages.createImage(); 2021 Bahrain F1 Test Day 1 – Friday lap times 11am“That area is the area that was most effected by the new regulations, where they tried to pull performance away from the car by changing the floor regs.“Down there is a bunch of aerodynamic detail that we are not quite ready to release to the world, not because it’s not there, but because we don’t want our competitors to see it, and we don’t want them starting to try and put similar things in their wind tunnels.“It just buys us a couple of weeks extra.”As Mercedes’ W12 broke cover for the first time in Bahrain, the intricate details of its real floor were finally revealed, with the rear of the floor curving upwards and features an undulating edge.Related ArticlesaccImages.createImage(); 2021 Bahrain F1 Test Day 1 – Friday lap times 11amaccImages.createImage(); Who is driving when during Bahrain’s F1 pre-season test?It has not been an ideal start to the opening day of running for Mercedes, with Valtteri Bottas only completing a single installation lap before a transmission issue cropped up, resulting in a gearbox change.XPB_1076347_HiRes.jpg accImages.createImage();
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