Finale in Abu Dhabi: Last Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix concluded a F1 season unlike any other that has gone before. For the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, it has been a difficult but nevertheless successful campaign, which Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton capped with another double podium at the Yas Marina Circuit. Between the first free practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix on 3 July and the season finale on 13 December in Abu Dhabi, the teams competed on 17 race weekends within the short time span of just 23 weeks. The Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 EQ Performance was the most successful F1 car of the season, with a tally of 13 race wins. Eleven victories went to Lewis and two to Valtteri. Sergio Perez added another victory for Mercedes power with his maiden Grand Prix win at Sakhir. Despite an exhausting itinerary that included no fewer than four triple-headers, the team will have relatively little time to recharge its batteries over the festive weeks, as preparations for the start of the 2021 season are already in full swing.
Formula E meets Formula 1: On Tuesday, following on directly from the Formula 1 season finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Yas Marina Circuit hosted the last test sessions of the year. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team welcomed two drivers in the person of Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries from the Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team. For Nyck, it was his first ever test outing in a F1 car, while for Stoffel, it was his first time at the wheel of the W11. Nyck and Stoffel completed 192 laps and 1,066 kilometres respectively in the course of the day. The test programme consisted of short as well as long runs, work on the setup and familiarisation with the characteristics of the Pirelli tyres. As both drivers are regular members of the F1 simulator programme, they were also able to draw comparisons between the physical and the virtual vehicle. In mid-January, Stoffel and Nyck will be flying to Santiago in Chile, where the first two races of the 2020/21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship are due to be contested on the weekend of 16/17 January.
Trickle-down effect: Cutting-edge technologies from F1 are more relevant to our everyday lives than you might think, because the ‘trickle-down effect’ from the premier class of motorsport has never been greater. So, what are some examples that might help us better appreciate the importance of 1 knowledge transfer to mass production vehicles? We take a look at hybrid and battery technologies, not least among them the Mercedes-AMG Project ONE.
