Mercedes have introduced a new rear wing to their car for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, journalist Albert Fabrega reports.
The Silver Arrows were the third-fastest team at the opening race of the season in Bahrain.
But as they look to close the gap on Red Bull and Ferrari, Fabrega has spotted a revised part on the W15.
Mercedes looked like they could challenge for pole position in Sakhir after Lewis Hamilton led a one-two in FP2.
However, the seven-time world champion could only manage ninth in qualifying, while George Russell was third behind Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton progressed to seventh in the race, while Russell lost two spots to finish fifth despite overtaking Leclerc early on.
Toto Wolff and co. will hope that they are no longer affected by the cooling issues they experienced in Bahrain, with temperatures set to be significantly hotter this weekend.
Mercedes introduce new rear wing for Saudi Arabia
Writing on his X/Twitter page, Fabrega shared images from the Mercedes garage showing the tweaks they’d made to their challenger.
“Details of new Mercedes rear wing low downforce wing,” he wrote, accompanied by the photos.
The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is very different in profile to Bahrain, not least in the sense that it’s a street track.
The 3.8-mile layout features of long, winding full-throttle segments, and by average speed, it’s the second fastest circuit on the calendar behind Monza in Italy.
As such, engineers will be inclined to sacrifice some downforce in the pursuit of minimising drag.
Mercedes set to face Max Verstappen questions in Saudi Arabia
While Mercedes will insist that their focus this weekend is solely what happens on the racetrack, there are bound to be plenty of questions about the recent Verstappen rumours.
It emerged this week that Verstappen is the ‘hottest candidate’ to replace Ferrari-bound Hamilton at the team in 2025.
The three-time world champion is apparently the number-one choice of team principal Wolff.
It’s a sensational move that some suspect would trigger an exodus from Red Bull, with Gerhard Berger predicting that designer Adrian Newey and director Helmut Marko would follow him out the door.
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