Mercedes and Ferrari have unveiled their new cars for the 2018 Formula 1 season with high expectations of fighting again for the title. Both have chosen to evolve last year’s designs and both spoke of maintaining their strengths while working on the weaknesses their cars showed. Mercedes have aimed at widening the operating window of a car that they described as a “diva”. Ferrari have worked on improving the car on faster tracks and reliability.
The Italian team’s title challenge faded last year partly owing to a run of poor reliability in the races in Malaysia and Japan in September and October. Mercedes ran their car at a frigid Silverstone on Thursday, with Valtteri Bottas doing a few laps in the morning and Lewis Hamilton taking over in the afternoon. Team boss Toto Wolff said: “We’ve tried to stay true to our design philosophy and develop an already solid base.” Wolff said the team had tried to keep the strengths of its overall pace as F1’s fastest car but iron out the flaws that made it uncompetitive at certain types of circuit, particularly slower tracks with low-grip surfaces.
“We hope we have kept the good character traits of the diva,” Wolff said. “We all like divas. But sometimes she was a bit difficult to understand and this is the area where we worked the most, trying to understand and preserve the speed in the car and find more driveability. “Because the regulations have stayed stable, there is not a lot of difference because the regs have stayed stable. Of what is visible, the most visible [change] is aerodynamic and how tight the packaging is of the car and how closed up the bodywork is.”
Hamilton said: “I am hopeful we have ironed out a lot of the creases. There is a different aerodynamic characteristic this year, there were certain circuits we were not as strong so hopefully we have found a compromise that suits all circuits. But everything is brand new. All the suspension and everything has been re-done, it is brand new.” The 33-year-old Britain said he was “excited” to start the new season and go for a fifth world title.
