All eyes will be on Mercedes during the Mexican Grand Prix this weekend, as the Silver Arrows will run their new front-wing on both cars at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Circuit.
The Germans’ new front-wing made a short appearance at the United States Grand Prix last weekend during FP1; however, it wasn’t used for the remainder of the weekend given that they “only had one”.
It was also questioned at the Circuit of the Americas if the wing was actually legal, due to it having a number of winglets to have a greater effect on the airflow, as well as produce more ‘outwash’ than the old design.
The design that Mercedes have uncovered this weekend has shown that the winglet brackets have been changed, to reduce the risk of rival teams complaining to the FIA.
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Mercedes are confident that the wing follows the regulations and will “try it” in Mexico.
The team’s head of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin, revealed that the team opted not to use it in COTA due to a potential penalty it might have given the “affected driver”; however, it is ready to be used this weekend.
“The reason we didn’t run it in Austin was that we only had one,” Shovlin said.
“So if we had damaged it in qualifying, that would have meant that we would have had to change the wing spec before the race and put the affected driver on the back of the grid.”
Shovlin says Mercedes now has spare front-wings in Mexico “so we’ll try it on Friday”.
According to technical director Mike Elliot, the team had actually received a green light from the FIA to use the wing prior to COTA, with the governing body admitting that “there is an argument” that it is legal.
“Then they came back and said ‘We’re not so sure about this’, but I think there is an argument to be made.”
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The team are actually “cautiously optimistic” about this weekend, where there is hope that the high-altitude will mask the W13’s poor straight-line speed.
This weekend’s venue is the highest on the calendar, with it being 2,200 metres above sea-level.
It means that the air is extraordinarily thin, meaning the entire field will be running as much downforce as possible.