Mercedes vs Ferrari

Lore & Background

The chassis was originally named the 'Mercedes F1 W08' to represent the eighth Formula One car that Mercedes had constructed since. The 'EQ Power+' was added to increase exposure of Mercedes' electric road car models, whilst AMG was included to reflect the relationship between Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes-Benz. The car made its competitive début at the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, the opening round of the 2017 season. After participating in 19 rounds of Grand Prix racing, the car made its final competition appearance at the season finale race – the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, before retirement.

The F1 W08 EQ Power+ took twelve wins (nine for Hamilton and three for Bottas), fifteen pole positions (eleven for Hamilton and four for Bottas), nine fastest laps (seven for Hamilton and two for Bottas) and four 1–2 finishes. The team clinched their fourth consecutive Constructors' Championship at the, the 17th race of the season with three races to spare. Hamilton clinched his fourth World Drivers' Championship at the season's next round, the.

Reader's Guide

Design and development: Initial design – In order to improve airflow for better aerodynamics purposes, Mercedes changed the front suspension by having the top wishbone attach directly to an extension before connecting to an upright. The increment in height of the top wishbone is to prevent the disturbance of airflow travelling from the front of the car, to the side-pods and towards the rear suspension, which may affect the stability of the entire car.

Coincidentally, Scuderia Toro Rosso also has this aerodynamic design on its 2017 car, the Toro Rosso STR12. Mercedes adopted a 'T-wing' device on the rear of the car to generate better rear down-force. The 'T-wing' device was seen as an external design mounted on the engine cover rather than shark fin like other 2017 cars. Bowl-shaped rear wing design brought from its predecessors remains on F1 W08 EQ Power+ to create higher down-force and reducing drag.

Barcelona upgrade – Mercedes brought its first major aerodynamic upgrade at the, changing the car from the front to the rear. The most obvious change was the introduction of a new, narrower nose which included a never seen before under-nose turning vane to help create a type of skirt underneath the car. Furthermore, Mercedes redesigned the area of the bargeboards which subsequently sported three R-shaped upstands. They also revised the winglet on the wishbone extension and introduced new camera mounts, a revised floor ahead of the rear tyre, a revised rear wing, and a new two-tier monkey seat.

According to Michael Schmidt from German magazine auto motor und sport, the upgrade wasn't supposed to have major time gains (apparently only 0.1 s). Mercedes' main targets were to make the car more consistent and to bring its tyres more easily into the operating window, as previously these had been their main deficits in comparison to Ferrari. Development testing – During the, Mercedes experimented asymmetric brake set-up during both practice session on Friday for running greater cooling capacity on one side of the car.

However, to speed up getting heat into the front tyres, the team decided to revert to symmetric layout during Saturday final practice, qualifying and Sunday race. Sepang upgrade – Mercedes brought a package of upgrades to the.