Work on the 2019 Formula One car started 16 months before its release, when the team was still fighting for its fourth Championship title. The development work was spearheaded by a small group of engineers, working on the general concept of the car. Over the course of the 2018 season and in the midst of an exciting and challenging Championship fight, more and more engineers in both Brixworth and Brackley started working on the W10.
On the chassis side, more than half of the engineers in the Design Office were working on the W10 by the 2018 F1 summer break. In October, when the F1 circus headed to the Americas and both the team and Lewis claimed their fifth World Championship titles, the factory was working flat out on the W10, designing and producing parts of the future contender. Overall, about 7000 drawings were released for manufacture.
Over the winter, many of the major components and sub systems like the transmission, the suspension, the cooling system and the Power Unit underwent rigorous testing, in which they were subjected to loads, temperatures and fatigue cycles similar to those they would experience in the F1 season. Before the car left the garage for the first time today, the team had tested something close to half a million kilometres cumulatively across all these different components.
The initial “Fire-Up” was a key milestone, as it was the first time when all the core systems – the hydraulic system, the electrical system, the fuel system, the cooling system, the gearbox, the chassis and of course the Power Unit – were assembled and the engine ran for the first time in unison with the other systems.
Compared to its predecessor, the Mercedes-AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+ was changed substantially. The majority of those modifications were driven by the significant changes to the Technical Regulations for the 2019 Formula One season, which presented both an opportunity and a threat – an opportunity to find the best solutions to these new rules, alongside the threat of your rivals finding an even better one.
In addition to dealing with the changes to the aerodynamic regulations, which were the main focus in the development of the W10, the team worked hard to improve the weaker areas of the previous car and further build on its strengths.
The handling of W09 was a big improvement over the W08, nicknamed the ‘diva’. We managed to be competitive at tracks that had previously plagued us. However, we were still not as good as some of our competition at preserving the rear tyres. So, the team worked hard on the suspension and aerodynamic characteristics to deliver a car that was kinder on its tyres.
Despite significant changes to many areas of the car, the W10 retained some of the characteristics of its predecessors, as the general architecture and the wheelbase stay the same. The execution of the concept was further refined, every item pushed tighter, made more slender – each change permitted us to improve the aerodynamic performance beyond what would have been possible had we accepted the physical limitations of the 2018 design.
W10 claimed 15 victories, 32 podiums, 10 pole positions and 22 front row starts across the 2019 season, alongside nine fastest laps and nine 1-2 finishes. It also completed 7,813 laps across pre-season testing and the 21 races – broken down into 382,789 gear changes and 128,791 corners taken.
| Monocoque: | Moulded carbon fibre and honeycomb composite structure |
| Bodywork: | Carbon fibre composite including engine cover, sidepods, floor, nose, front wing and rear wing |
| Cockpit: | Removable driver's seat made of anatomically formed carbon composite, OMP six-point driver safety harness, HANS system |
| Safety Structures: | Cockpit survival cell incorporating impact-resistant construction and penetration panels, front impact structure, prescribed side impact structures, integrated rear impact structure, front and rear roll structures, titanium driver protection structure (halo) |
| Front Suspension: | Carbon fibre wishbone and pushrod-activated torsion springs and rockers |
| Rear Suspension: | Carbon fibre wishbone and pullrod-activated torsion springs and rockers |
| Wheels: | OZ forged magnesium |
| Tyres: | Pirelli |
| Brake System: | Carbone Industries Carbon / Carbon discs and pads with rear brake-by-wire |
| Brake Calipers: | Brembo |
| Steering: | Power-assisted rack and pinion |
| Steering Wheel: | Carbon fibre construction |
| Electronics: | FIA standard ECU and FIA homologated electronic and electrical system |
| Instrumentation: | McLaren Electronic Systems (MES) |
| Fuel System: | ATL Kevlar-reinforced rubber bladder |
| Lubricants & Fluids: | PETRONAS Tutela |
| Gearbox: | Eight speed forward, one reverse unit with carbon fibre maincase |
| Gear Selection: | Sequential, semi-automatic, hydraulic activation |
| Clutch: | Carbon plate |
| Overall Length: | Over 5000mm |
| Overall Width: | 2000mm |
| Overall Height: | 950mm |
| Overall Weight: | 743kg |
| Type: | Mercedes-AMG F1 M10 EQ Power+ |
| Minimum Weight: | 145 kg |
| Power Unit Perimeter: | Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) |
| Motor Generator Unit - Kinetic (MGU-K) | |
| Motor Generator Unit - Heat (MGU-H) | |
| Turbocharger (TC) | |
| Energy Store (ES) | |
| Control Electronics (CE) | |
| Power Unit Allocation: | Three ICE, TC & MGU-H per driver per season |
| Two MGU-K, ES, CE per driver per season |
| Capacity: | 1.6 litres |
| Cylinders: | Six |
| Bank Angle: | 90 |
| No of Valves: | 24 |
| Max rpm ICE: | 15,000 rpm |
| Max Fuel Flow Rate: | 100 kg/hour (above 10,500 rpm) |
| Fuel Injection: | High-pressure direct injection (max 500 bar, one injector/cylinder) |
| Pressure Charging: | Single-stage compressor and exhaust turbine on a common shaft |
| Max rpm Exhaust Turbine: | 125,000 rpm |
| Architecture: | Integrated Hybrid energy recovery via electrical Motor Generator Units |
| Energy Store: | Lithium-Ion battery solution of minimum 20 kg regulation weight |
| Max energy storage/lap: | 4 MJ |
| Max rpm MGU-K: | 50,000 rpm |
| Max power MGU-K: | 120 kW (161 hp) |
| Max energy recovery/lap MGU-K: | 2 MJ |
| Max energy deployment/lap MGU-K: | 4 MJ (33.3 s at full power) |
| Max rpm MGU-H: | 125,000 rpm |
| Max power MGU-H: | Unlimited |
| Max energy recovery/lap MGU-H: | Unlimited |
| Max energy deployment/lap MGU-H: | Unlimited |
| Fuel: | PETRONAS Primax |
| Lubricants | PETRONAS Syntium |
