Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Mercedes reveals final 2022 F1 car updates ahead of US Grand Prix

Mercedes has revealed the final updates for its 2022 Formula 1 car ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix as it bids to end its winless season.

Mercedes W13 floor detail

Mercedes W13 floor detail

Giorgio Piola

Giorgio Piola's F1 technical analysis

Giorgio Piola is the preeminent Formula 1 technical journalist. Born in Genoa, Italy, Giorgio has covered the F1 World Championship since 1969, producing thousands of illustrations that have been reproduced in the world’s most prestigious motor racing publications.

Mercedes confirmed heading to Austin that it would be bringing the final updates of the year for the W13 car to the Circuit of The Americas this weekend.

The glimpse details of the update package emerged on Thursday, when a revised front wing design for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s cars was spotted in the pit lane. This included a revised design in the outboard section, as well as some new flow diverters between the upper flaps.

But the full details of the update package have now been confirmed after the FIA issued its technical document ahead of Friday’s first practice session at the Circuit of The Americas.

Mercedes’ submission to the FIA confirmed the updated front wing design was intended to aid “flow conditions” by reducing the camber of the front wing tip and adding the slot gap separators.

According to Mercedes, this “reduces wing tip loading, improving onset flow to the front drum deflector, which in turn improves tyre squirt management and flow to the rear of the car.”

“The slot gap separators improve the rigidity of final two front wing elements,” the team added.

Mercedes W13 floor detail

Mercedes W13 floor detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

But the front wing is not the only new part that will be on the Mercedes W13 car this weekend. The rear wing has also been updated to feature a new endplate design to increase the load on the upper part of the rear wing.

Finally, Mercedes will also be running an updated floor in Austin this weekend, making changes to the floor fences and the floor edge.

The small change to the floor fence camber is intended to improve flow conditioning, increasing the aerodynamic load on the diffuser while maintaining the load from the front of the floor. The new floor edge wing will also add aerodynamic load without impacting the diffuser load.

Mercedes is one of only three teams to bring any updates to Austin, the others being Alpine and Alfa Romeo.

Alpine A522 floor detail

Alpine A522 floor detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Alpine will look to boost its performance in the fight with McLaren for P4 in the constructors’ championship with an updated floor, adding a winglet underneath the floor edge. This will be the team’s final floor update of the season.

Alfa Romeo has also opted for a floor update, changing the geometry of the forward part of the floor as well as changing the side cutouts in a bid to increase downforce and provide more stability to drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Gasly "reckless" but FIA also shoulders blame: the Suzuka F1 report's key findings
Next article Live: F1 United States GP commentary and updates - FP1 & FP2

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe