Report: Mercedes has 'trick' beyond power & downforce

Jul.15 - There is more to Mercedes' dominance than simply power and downforce.

That is the finding of Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, arguing that main rival Ferrari is now almost level-pegging with the world champions in terms of horse power.

And as far as the chassis is concerned, rivals are now beginning to look more closely at how the 2015 Mercedes is often so much better.

Referring to Silverstone, and a detailed analysis based on GPS data in qualifying, Force India's technical boss Andy Green said: "They killed everybody in the last corner particularly.

"Apparently they're keeping the rear tyres in such good shape in the first part of the lap that they still have good grip in the final corners. For everyone else, the temperature is going up too much for that."

Green said he has noticed a key difference with the front suspension settings of the Mercedes.

Auto Motor und Sport correspondent Michael Schmidt revealed that the suspicion is that the W06, by way of an unexplained trick, is able to be "pumped up" for the optimal balance between high and low-speed corners.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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