• Mercedes

Risk-averse Mercedes faced 'setback' with 2015 nose

© Sutton Images

Enlarge

Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe says his team has been risk averse when evolving the championship-winning W05 Hybrid into this year's W06 Hybrid, but admits the new nose regulations presented a big challenge over the winter.

Mercedes won 16 of 19 races in a dominant first season under Formula One's new engine and technical regulations in 2014 and enter this year's championship as the clear favourites. Lowe said his team were careful to retain the positives of the W05 and as a result have taken a cautious approach to this year's car.

"We went through the process of designing the W06 determined to retain the advantage we had with the W05," he said. "We take nothing for granted, we have some great competitors out there and they are just as keen to win as us. We all hate losing in this business, so they won't be giving up and our motivation in the winter was to push as hard as we can, but the other thing to do is balance risk.

"Every development you make has some risk, you can't move forwards without some risk of potentially not getting it right. We were very conscious that we had a good car, and we didn't want to throw any babies out with the bath water as we took steps to make developments. It's an evolutionary year from a regulations point of view and the car is essentially an evolution, but we do have to make progress by minor revolutions under the skin.

"There are lots of small developments. Cooling systems are an example; last year was a big project to get the cooling right with the new power unit and this is our second time around to revisit that and get some of the fundamentals even better than they were. You want to make the development but you don't want to have any risk in trying to move so far forward that you actually move backwards. There are a lot of projects of that nature."

© Getty Images

Enlarge

One big change in the regulations this year surrounds the nose and front crash structure. In an attempt to make the cars safer last year, the tip of the nose was lowered by regulation resulting in different solutions from different teams. Some of the noses were particularly ugly, so when the FIA revisited the nose regulations for this year it attempted to make them safer still while eliminating the loopholes that bred the ugly solutions of 2014.

Lowe said that in doing so the FIA created a big challenge for the teams and one that has the potential to shake up the order.

"With aerodynamics, the nose was a big project and the most significant rule change," he added. "We saw a variety of noses out there last year, some of them more ugly than others. I seem to remember at this point last year nose ugliness was one of the big topics, but thankfully that is now probably in the past.

"We had a pretty good looking nose last year as it happened, and we still do but it's lower. That's had an effect on the performance of the car, it's one of the big setbacks that had to be overcome over the winter. It remains to be seen if other people got hit more on that, because that's the nature of regulation changes, they can hurt some more than others.

"That's a big project, and seeing as the nose is at the front of the car, any change to the aerodynamics at the front has a big influence on the whole car because clearly it creates the flowfield behind it that influences every other component. So, a bigger change than it may seem."

© Getty Images

Enlarge

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.