Mercedes

Mercedes - Lower rear wishbone as good an innovation as DAS

The W11 is awash with creativity

Ian Parkes

Sunday 26 April 2020 15:55

Mercedes technical director James Allison is aware that while DAS may have caught the eye in Formula 1 this year, he claims the car is awash with equally as remarkable innovations.

The dual-axis system hit the headlines in pre-season testing, with onboard footage capturing the device at work inside the cockpit of Lewis Hamilton's W11.

While DAS has grabbed all the attention, Allison has revealed there are numerous other additions on the car that play just as an important role but have flown under the radar.

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"The car is as beautiful a manifestation of a thousand people's innovation and creativity as you could wish to have," said Allison.

"Although there are eye-catching and flashy things, like the DAS, on this year's car, there is written through every part of the car's substance, innovation at every level."

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Highlighting one particular component, Allison added: "Just take our lower rear wishbone. Effectively we've swapped the front and rear leg round.

"It doesn't garner much attention in the press because it's not that dramatic visually, but by doing that you give a more clear run for the aerodynamicists to get high-energy air down to a part of the car that loves high-energy air.

"To do that, all the people who work on the structural side, the gearbox, the suspension, crash structures, really have their work cut out to put together a layout of suspension that is kinematically good, and which is strong enough and stiff enough to retain the same sort of driving characteristics that we know worked so well on the previous year's car, despite the fact a lot of the main forces are running down very different paths through the legs once you juggle them around like that.

"It required the skill of dozens of people to make that happen, and when I look at that lower rear wishbone I'm every bit as proud of the team that was capable of creating that as I am of the equally clever and skilful engineers that put together the DAS package."

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Insisting DAS and the lower rear wishbone are just two examples of innovation at work, Allison said: 'That's just picking two things at random. The car is covered in such stuff, and I hope will be again in the seasons in the future.

"One of the lovely things about being in this sport is that you just get to bathe in this sea of creativity that comes from hundreds of people, all focused on the same goal, which is creating the fastest car out there, and fighting it to the front in the races."