Straked rear wing 1 / 5 Photo by: Giorgio Piola The rear wing endplates on the Mercedes W10 were altered for the second round of the championship, with the team dividing the strakes that sit on the outer bounding line into three sections, rather than two. This changes the behavior of the airflow in the region, altering the position and vorticity of the vortex shed at the wing’s tip.

Keeping everything cool 2 / 5 Photo by: Giorgio Piola Cooling requirements for the power unit differ at each and every circuit, with the decision also complicated by the aerodynamic compromise that opening up vents on the car brings with it. For the last two seasons Mercedes have utilized a configuration that allows them to expel unwanted heat at the tail end of the halo, mitigating some of the aerodynamic inefficiencies created by the safety structure. The team ran this combined with the enlarged louvred cooling panel in Australia but altered the car’s engine cover in Bahrain to smooth out the transition, deleting the outlet.

Drum roll please 3 / 5 Photo by: Giorgio Piola Not entirely new for Bahrain but certainly worth noting is the W10’s front brake drum, the design of which looks to make the most of the regulation changes made for 2019. You’ll note the deep cutout section which crosses over the face of the drum, taking airflow collected by the inlet and redistributing it for aerodynamic effect out through the wheel rim. Also note the small gridded window which allows heat generated by the discs to escape, transferring some of that heat to the wheel rim that’s in close proximity.

Asymmetric window approach 4 / 5 Photo by: Giorgio Piola As we can see from this front view, the deeper crossover section is used on both sides of the car, but an asymmetric layout is favoured when taking into account the heat release window. Only featured on the right-hand side of the car (the left as we look towards it), the window is used to help with tyre temperature management due to the predominantly clockwise nature of the circuit heating the outer tyre at a different rate.