Mercedes awarded major boost in the wake of Austrian Grand Prix victory

Mercedes brought an upgraded front wing to the W15 in Monaco

Winning in Austria, Mercedes may have outscored Ferrari by 100 points in the last three races but it hasn’t been enough to regain P2 in the championship, meaning more ATR time for the Brackley squad.

F1’s Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions [ATR] regulations determine how much wind tunnel time and CFD capacity the teams are permitted based on a sliding scale.

Mercedes have an extra 10 per cent ATR time

Based on championship points, the scale was reset based on 30 June’s Constructors’ Championship log with Mercedes emerging as a big winner.

Having finished second last season behind Red Bull, they began the year with just 75% of the baseline allocation which as of July 1st is up to 85 per cent.

The boost is as a result of Mercedes’ P4 in the Constructors’ standings where, on June 30th, they trailed Ferrari by 95 points and McLaren by 72.

That means they receive more wind tunnel runs and CFD time while their main rivals, Ferrari and McLaren, have both taken a five per cent hit.

Red Bull, who won last year’s Constructors’ Championship and lead this season’s by 64 points ahead of Ferrari, remain on 70 per cent of the allotted time.

The important numbers after the Austrian Grand Prix

 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ standings after the Austrian Grand Prix

The ATR boost comes at a time when Mercedes are looking to build on Russell’s Austrian Grand Prix victory with Toto Wolff applauding their upward trajectory.

“Simply on pace, we were the third-quickest car we’ve been this way the last three weekends,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com. “That is very encouraging, to see that upward trend and the consolidation of the trend.

“But racing happens on Sunday. Sometimes we’ve been on the receiving end and [in Austria] we’ve benefited from the incident at the front.

“It’s just good to have that win in the pocket this year. It means there’s four teams that won races this year, and it’s been just 2023 where we haven’t won a race since 2011.

“That is good to know and certainly big momentum now in the team to go to a point where we are able on real performance to fight for the win. And I think we will be.

“We are bringing upgrades now almost to every race. The factory is running on full steam. We’ve never had this in 12 years — that we were able to develop, design, manufacturer, bring to the track and have the quality in the pieces. I’ve seriously never seen that pace.

“So every single race we have brought upgrades. Every single race, we will bring upgrades and I hope by the summer break we can make another step.

“Now everyone else is working hard. But if we can eat a bit away at that gap… I think it was 15 seconds in 70 laps, so two-tenths. That’s OK, that’s a P3 and hopefully if we can halve it, we can race in front.”

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