The Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance builds on the solid base of its championship-winning predecessor, the W11. Image: Daimler.

The more you know about Formula One, the more mind-boggling it becomes. If you’re ever lucky enough to get a look behind the high-security walls of an F1 engineering facility, your brain might actually explode.
 

I was once allowed to tour the headquarters of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team at Brackley in England and wandered around in a mix of awe and information overload.
 

At the time, there were more than 1500 people working in four shifts, so that the facility could continually test and develop new carbon-fibre parts, 24 hours a day. In the 2018 season, some part of the car was updated, or reimagined on average, every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day. New F1 rule changes will soon put a stop to this near-constant development, but more on that later.
 

“The car that starts the first race is not the same as the car that finishes the last one, and if you’re not constantly improving, you fall behind,” my guide explained. “Last season we’d gained two seconds over the course of the season – if we hadn’t done that, we’d be two seconds behind everyone else, and that would mean finishing last.”
 

So when Mercedes-AMG revealed its new car for the 2021 season, the W12 E Performance, it was safe to assume that an unimaginably large amount of work had gone into it – even before you factor in a couple of major changes to F1 regulations.
 

One of the things that makes F1 so challenging – aside from the level of competition at a technical level – is that the rules of the sport are often changing. These changes are intended to make the racing more exciting to watch, or to allow smaller teams with lesser budgets to catch up.
 

For the 2021 season, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team needed to adapt to new aerodynamic regulations and budgetary restrictions, while also making changes to the power unit.

By Stephen Corby