Image courtesy of Red Bull Racing
Without question, Mercedes’ 2014 car, the W05, will be remembered as one of the most successful cars in the history of F1. Barring a few reliability failures and driver-ego-squabbles, the W05 would likely have finished 1-2 at every race on the 2014 calendar.
The general consensus as to the secret of Mercedes’ success is their engine, aka powerplant, powertrain, ICE/ERS, engine-hybrid-vroom-thingy or whatever we finally decide to call the new hybrid V6 turbos. The evidence suggests that the Mercedes engine is, again without question, in a class of its own when compared to the engines from Ferrari and Renault. Yet, three other teams used the Mercedes engine in 2014, including Williams and McLaren, two of the most successful teams in F1 history.
Just last week, Red Bull’s chief car designer, Adrian Newey, expressed to the media his opinion that the Renault engine was the source of Red Bull’s 2014 frustrations. He claimed that a superior chassis could compensate for the Renault engine’s lack of power in comparison to that of the Mercedes. In fact, he went so far as say that 2014 was “engine-dominated”, hinting that he did not hold the chassis side of the W05 in high esteem.
Yet, a few days earlier, Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe expressed a very different opinion regarding the success of the W05. He boldly stated that “aerodynamics have become more crucial than ever”. He then proceeded to highlight areas of the W05, such as the front suspension geometry, specifically a radical new wishbone design, that he felt was far more crucial to Mercedes’ success than their engine.
Who do we believe? Adrian Newey is arguably the most successful car designer in F1 history. However, Paddy Lowe’s car (well, Ross Brawn’s, but we’ll get to that in a moment) just dominated the field. Let’s examine the evidence.
The closest competitor to Mercedes at the end of 2014 was the Williams FW36. Williams were quick to sing the praises of the Mercedes engine, consistently setting the fastest speed trap marks at nearly every circuit and sometimes by a wide margin. This straightline speed of the Williams is key. With the same engine, Williams were faster in a straight line than Mercedes. In other words, if anyone were getting the most out of the “oomph” of the Mercedes engine, it was Williams. Yet Mercedes were still faster over the course of a lap, signifanctly so at some circuits. The reason Mercedes were faster is because the W05 produced more downforce than the Williams FW36, making it slower on the straights, but faster in the corners. In short, the W05 featured superior aerodynamics to the FW36.
While Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe reaped the benefits of the technical wonder that is the W05, the seeds of success were sown by Ross Brawn. Ross Brawn is typically seen as a great strategist and leader, but has a rich history of fielding cars with aerodynamic innovations. All the way back to the early 90’s Ross was responsible for the Jaguar (and later Mazda and later TWR) XJR-14 Le Mans racer which produced maniacal-laughter inducing levels of downforce (supposedly Martin Brundle quite literally found himself laughing behind the wheel in awe at what the car could do in the corners). In 2009, the phoenix-from-the-ashes of the works Honda squad, Brawn GP, produced the BGP 001 which dominated the first half of the season (enough to take both championships) with its grey-area-exploiting double diffuser. Once again in 2014, a car that owed much of its life to Ross Brawn dominated F1.
I’m sure Adrian Newey wants to believe 2014 was a tale of two engines, that with a better engine once again Red Bull would have dominated with its superior aerodynamics. The evidence, on the other hand, suggests Adrian might be barking up the wrong tree, or as Paddy Lowe suggests, the wrong wishbone. If Adrian Newey is correct, 2015 will see the rest of the field close the gap to Mercedes as Renault and Ferrari improve their engines, allowing Newey to flex his aerodynamic muscle. If Paddy Lowe is correct, Lewis Hamilton is going to need a bigger trophy room.
