Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has refused to reveal details of where his team has used its development tokens on the W12 this season. He has said this is to avoid a “war on information”.
Pre-season always comes with its fair share of drama in F1. The past couple of weeks have not bucked that trend despite the bulk of the cars being rather similar to last year.
New rules have, however, had a significant impact on downforce and teams have focused not on revealing their trade secrets ahead of the upcoming season.
Mercedes has been even more secretive in its approach and has not disclosed where it has used its development tokens.
“Not everything needs to be put in the public,” Wolff said when pressed on the issue.
“This is also a war on information, a competition of information, and I’m sure you haven’t seen all the cars in the specification they are going to be raced in Bahrain, so that is part of it.”
Mercedes had a rather disappointing time during pre-season and managed to clock the least number of laps out of all teams on the grid.
Many believe this has been done on purpose by the Silver Arrows, who are believed to be sandbagging. Others, meanwhile, have said the troubles that they faced are very real.
The team has, however, spoken about its floorthat was initially concealed at the launch. It has a distinctly wavy edge to it.
“If I were to start on the benefits of the floor for aero purposes you would probably get the wrong information!
“I think it looks good. [It is about] Optimising the floor around the lack of aerodynamic performance we have with the new regulations. Let’s see whether it can be translated into real performance.”
Do you believe Mercedes will face its toughest season in the recent past? Is Red Bull really a step ahead of them at this juncture? Let us know in the comments section!
Read more: Teams divided over sprint races due to negligible budget cap increase proposal