Mercedes Will Not Debut F-Duct in Barcelona

While Ferrari have already confirmed the debut of their newly-developed F-duct system from as early as the first practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend – depending on how it works, the system may be used in the race also – Mercedes GP don't seem to have found the final solution to the aerodynamic device.

Although debuting a preliminary F-duct in China, Ross Brawn's team was not able to finalize the project in time for the Barcelona race.

As confirmed by driver Nico Rosberg, Mercedes' version of the F-duct system was not operated by the driver. “Instead, air was 'flicked' at increasingly higher speed through a slot in the rear wing,” noted a report from the GMM news agency.

Although Brawn expressed his hopes of debuting the completely developed system by Spain, Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper revealed otherwise. While debuting a brand new chassis for Michael Schumacher and some aerodynamic updates for both drivers, Mercedes GP felt short on fully developing the F-duct.

Consequently, it seems the next deadline for it will be the Turkish Grand Prix, held between May 28 thru 30 at Istanbul. That would give the technicians almost 4 weeks time to finalize the project, as Brawn believes hurrying up the development work for the twisty circuit of Monte Carlo – which will follow Spain as the 6th round of the season – would be useless.

In the meantime, rivals Ferrari have already conducted a maiden test on their F-duct system at Vairano circuit last weekend, with Giancarlo Fisichella's F10 also featuring an in-board mirrors design (outboard mirrors were banned by the FIA starting the Spanish GP).