The off-track battle that will define F1's title fight

Formula 1 is a gladiatorial contest between drivers; a political dogfight between team bosses. But the true nature of the beast is tireless pursuit of engineering excellence. Mostly, therefore, F1 is a battle of brains: the ingenious ideas of the brightest minds forged in carbon fibre, pitted against those of their rivals. A skirmish of pens, drawing boards and CAD machines. Think to victory: design or die.

The cars are as intricate as Swiss clockwork; the engines a complex mix of fuel-starved, turbo-charged, gas-recycling, electro-powered, hybrid wizardry - capable of producing close to 1,000bhp.

The undoubted master of this sorcery in the V6 era is Mercedes, but the new aerodynamic rules and wider tyres introduced for 2017 have, to some degree, scrambled the picture. Ferrari came close to denying Mercedes last season, such was its leap forward with the SF70H - arguably its best car in a decade.

Snapping at Ferrari's heels came Red Bull, charging into contention as the season wore on, too late to affect the outcome, but potent enough to upset the other big beasts. Red Bull - F1's V8-era master - has been dethroned in the V6 age, but can never be discounted, thanks to its biggest weapon: Adrian Newey, the greatest F1 designer of the past 25 years.

Can his maverick genius outwit the methodical diligence of Mercedes and the passionate fever of Ferrari? This is the battle that will define the 2018 title race, fought out on the drawing boards and CAD screens of F1's top three teams.

Mercedes W09

If it ain't broke... well, it still needs fixing

"Every time we make a big change there's always an opportunity to do things better. How can we make the flow in the exhaust pipes better? How do we make the cooling in the cylinder heads better? If we're making changes, let's refine all the good bits. You look and think 'it's only two milliseconds', but you do it in ten places and it's 20 milliseconds."

This statement by Andy Cowell, chief whizz at Mercedes' all-conquering engine department, exemplifies the attitude that has underpinned the team's recent dominance of F1. Team boss Toto Wolff talks of the team motto: 'See it, say it, fix it.' Identify every area of weakness and destroy it - and while you're at, make the good bits better too.

Mercedes's mantra is: 'Identify every area of weakness and destroy it'

"What we do from a senior leadership level down is to blame the problem not the individual," says Wolff. "Blame the individual and people clam up: you won't see innovation, you won't see risk-taking. We are in a risk-taking business."

Nevertheless, chief designer John Owen says Mercedes deliberately built its 2017 car to 90% of its design potential, to give the team room to react to unforeseen challenges. Last year's W08 had the longest wheelbase on the grid, affording great stability on high-speed tracks, and offering the aerodynamicists plenty of physical space on which to place performance-enhancing parts.

Alas, too many of those parts had to be over-engineered, to prevent their disintegration. The car was thus too heavy and too hard on its tyres. Extracting performance also required engineers to "ignore a lot of what we thought were the standard ways of engineering a car and go off in the opposite direction," according to technical director James Allison.

Despite these troublesome characteristics, which led Wolff to dub the car a "capricious diva", it still set more poles and won more races than the rest. So the team have opted for an evolutionary approach for the W09, while working diligently to refine the concept and eliminate the inconsistencies.

The front suspension has been altered and the rear ride-height slightly raised to improve the car's dexterity through low-speed corners. But nowhere is this process of refinement more apparent than in the incredibly tight packaging around the radiators and engine cover. This collaboration between chassis and engine departments has improved the car to the tune of 0.25 seconds per lap, according to Allison.

"Across the entire car, across every part of its surface, we've made it new," he explains. "We have found improved ways of getting downforce and performance into the car. Each one of them is small in isolation, but they add up in their totality to something that is enormous."

That's the Mercedes way in a nutshell - endless refinement of thousands of tiny parts that adds up to one mighty whole.

Verdict

A mighty and ruthlessly efficient winning machine. Incredible even when creaking. Unstoppable when well oiled.

Ferrari SF71H

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Aurelio Lampredi, Franco Rocchi, Mauro Forghieri, Harvey Postlethwaite, John Barnard, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne. The corridors of Maranello echo to some of the most legendary names in F1 design through the ages. Ferrari tried to hire Newey, too, of course, but could never get the great British maverick to swap the UK for Italy, despite offering him "the crown jewels".

Ferrari's technical team has been through multiple cycles of hirings and firings in the decade since it last won a world championship in 2008, with notable technical names such as Aldo Costa, Nikolas Tombazis, Pat Fry and Mercedes' Allison all sacrificed on the altar of failed ambition. Because Ferrari must win. Anything less is unconscionable failure. Bettering Byrne and Brawn, however, has proved troublesome for the Scuderia.

Bettering Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn has proved troublesome for the Scuderia

With great responsibility comes great pressure, and currently that weight falls upon the shoulders of Mattia Binotto, an unassuming engineer of Swiss stock, who has risen gradually through Ferrari's ranks since joining the test team in the mid-1990s. Since becoming chief technical officer in the summer of 2016, Binotto has sought to implement a philosophy of greater collaboration between design departments, rather than the pursuit of excellence in isolation - though Byrne still lurks in the background, offering a guiding light through the design corridors.

Last year's SF70H was the first complete product of Binotto's process. Early in the season, it was by far the most consistently raceable car on the grid - particularly good on low-speed circuits and gentle on its tyres. Ferrari opted for a significantly shorter wheelbase than Mercedes in 2017, and also moved the sidepods rearwards to open up space in the bargeboard area - a zone ripe for aerodynamic development under the new regulations.

Notwithstanding its 2017 successes, Ferrari still ultimately fell short, producing a car that was slower than Mercedes across the balance of circuits on the calendar. So, Ferrari has opted to lengthen its car's wheelbase for '18, to make it "strong and performing on high-speed circuits", according to Binotto. Ferrari also has "sidepods and radiator ducts that are even more aggressive, more innovative", as well as tighter bodywork around the engine.

Ferrari has decided to retain a high rear ride height - somewhere between the aggressive rake of the Red Bull and the flatter approach of Mercedes. Managing the aerodynamic consequences of the longer wheelbase, high rake, tighter engine packaging and halo means that this year's Ferrari has sprouted special tunnels on its floor, and even some turning vanes inside the mirrors.

Higher rake aids front wing performance at lower speeds, so Ferrari has clearly tried to take the best of both worlds - borrowing the long-wheelbase concept that helps make Mercedes so strong at high speeds, the high rear ride-height concept that helps Red Bull's potency at low speeds, and twinning that with a front-wing concept that apes McLaren's.

But, as Britain is finding with Brexit, having your cake and eating it is difficult. In trying to square the circle, there remains the danger Ferrari will over-reach in pursuit of its obsessive compulsion to win at all costs.

Verdict

Steeped in grandeur but haunted by failure. Gradually laying ghosts to rest by marrying humility with passionate aggression.

Red Bull RB14

The chassis king is back on its throne

Although he is preoccupied with other things these days, such as America's Cup yachts and Aston Martin hypercars, Adrian Newey's design genius still underpins Red Bull's deserved reputation for building the most aerodynamically efficient cars in F1. It's no wonder Mercedes and Ferrari studiously avoid supplying engines to this team, knowing the threat it would pose to their own competitive standing.

F1's latest aerodynamic rules, drafted to beef up downforce figures and make the cars faster than ever, should be perfectly suited to a team of Red Bull's talents, one built around Newey's flair for seeing the ideal airflow structure for a car in his mind's eye and committing it to canvas. He is almost the Last of the Mohicans - a true artistic visionary among F1's modern breed of data-crunchers.

Newey took his eye off the ball somewhat in 2017

Newey took his eye off the ball somewhat in 2017, as Red Bull - the king of modern F1 aerodynamics - endured an unexpectedly difficult start to life under the new regulations. It went with a low-drag concept that didn't correlate well between the windtunnel and the track, thanks to unexpected difficulty in accurately modelling the new, wider Pirelli tyres. Once that course was corrected, Red Bull transformed back into its normal self - developing its car aggressively, quickly and successfully. At low speed, last year's RB13 was the standout chassis, particularly once it developed greater complexity in its bargeboard and sidepod designs.

The aim with the RB14, according to team principal Christian Horner, is to build on the successful concepts of RB13. Visually, the RB14 is stunning - very detailed and incredibly tightly packaged. It certainly caught the eye of Allison, who singled Red Bull out for praise during pre-season testing in Barcelona.

Red Bull retained a shorter wheelbase than Mercedes and Ferrari, while following Ferrari in running short sidepods, which allows plenty of space to optimise the vital bargeboard area ahead of the radiator inlets. Red Bull is extraordinarily adept at developing its cars over a season - a trait that underpinned its title success in the latter days of the V8 era - but this year it imposed earlier production deadlines to arrive better prepared for testing and the early races.

Daniel Ricciardo reckons the team are in finer fettle than at any time since he joined ahead of the 2014 season, so Red Bull should start strongly and gain extra strength, rather than simply using its strength to dig its way out of trouble.

The key to unlocking performance lies in the Renault engine. Renault's difficulties in reliably extracting proper efficiency from this hybrid engine formula have held Red Bull back throughout Ricciardo's time there. But if it can unlock extra power without compromising reliability, the genius of Newey and his team should do the rest.

Verdict

F1's masters of guerrilla warfare. Fighting with the biggest and the best, thanks to razor-sharp focus and maverick genius.