2014 was all about a title push for Mercedes, and the W05 marks this intention. Outwardly more complex than its rivals at this stage, intriguing features are littered across the new Silver Arrow. With chassis and power unit developed under the same roof, could this new car be the fruition of a new dominant power in Formula 1?
Front wing/Nose
Its appearance may be similar to the Ferrari F14 T, but the W05’s nose has a party trick up its sleeve.
The regulations require the tip of the nose to centre a point 185mm above the reference plane with a minimum 9000mm2 cross section. Normally, such is the demand for additional airflow beneath the chassis to produce rear downforce, a single cross section is formed to create the “finger” nose that we are widely seeing across the grid for this season.