梅赛德斯解释与其他F1车队“不同步”的研发策略
梅赛德斯技术总监詹姆斯·艾利森表示，车队决定较晚冻结2026年赛车设计，导致其与竞争对手“不同步”，赛季中期升级带来巨大性能提升，产生跳跃效应。W17赛车目前是场上最优秀的，赛季初在澳大利亚获得1-2名，并已取得八场胜利。
梅赛德斯解释与其他F1车队“不同步”的研发策略
尽管赛季开局占得先机，但将W17设计推向极限的决定，使梅赛德斯在F1 2026年的研发竞争中“不同步”。
梅赛德斯技术总监詹姆斯·艾利森表示，车队决定较晚继续研发其2026年F1赛车，这使其与其他车队“不同步”，导致赛季中期升级带来巨大性能提升，产生跳跃效应。
W17迄今为止是场上最优秀的赛车，赛季初在澳大利亚获得1-2名，并在F1新时代的前11场比赛中取得八场胜利。尽管该车队是明确的冠军热门，但这并未阻止法拉利和迈凯伦在2026赛季凭借实力击败它获胜。
艾利森在车队的Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show播客中表示，车队在风洞中每周找到的圈速提升约为上赛季的“六到七倍”。这展示了在新规则下寻找提升与在更成熟、生命周期末端的规则下寻找提升之间的差异。
他还透露，车队选择较晚推进W17赛车的设计。当车队设计赛车时，通常会选择一个“设计冻结”点，届时赛车将按原样制造，进一步的研发将打包为赛季后期的升级。
梅赛德斯选择将冻结点推迟，压缩了制造时间，但允许其有效地将早期升级纳入首发赛车。艾利森表示，如果出现问题，这“毫无余量”，但这让车队得以利用持续的研发曲线。
“在空气动力学方面，风洞中每一周过去所带来的增益率，我们找到的圈速提升——那就是增益率——大约是去年的六到七倍，”艾利森说。
“大约每两个月0.5秒，差不多是这样，所以这真的非常陡峭。我们竭尽全力在年初推出一辆强大的赛车。
“谢天谢地，这是一次相当不错的努力。但我们研发策略的一件事是，我们在空气动力学方面和车身方面内部决定，要比以往任何时候都晚几周才定稿。而且我们要制定一个毫无余量的计划。
刘易斯·汉密尔顿，法拉利，乔治·拉塞尔，梅赛德斯
“由于那个计划，我们尽可能多地将那非常非常陡峭的研发斜率，在首场比赛的首辆赛车中体现出来，我认为这是人力所能及的极限。我们为此倾尽所有。其他车队或许没有以如此晚刹车、如此接近极限的方式到来。因此，他们更早地升级了赛车。”
艾利森表示，尽管这在年初为梅赛德斯带来了优势，但也让车队没有后续储备。这使其在推出升级方面比对手落后“一两场比赛”，因为它必须储备进一步的改进。
他解释说，当其他车队带来升级时，0.5秒的优势可能被完全抹平，这让梅赛德斯在等待自身研发以恢复优势期间可能处于脆弱状态。
这解释了车队之间性能的起伏；法拉利在巴塞罗那凭借可观的升级包找到了速度，而迈凯伦在匈牙利的新底板为其铺平了通往赛季首胜的道路。
“他们更早地修好了赛车，然后他们研发的第一批升级在赛季中更早到来。所以我们到来时，你知道，性能充沛，但全部用尽了，”艾利森继续说道。
“我们一直在加油以提供更多，我们有点不同步。由于提前到来，我们的研发计划现在比其他人的升级节奏慢一两场比赛。
“从我们看到的圈速来看，似乎每个人都处于与我们相同的斜率上。每个人都在以大约每两个月0.5秒的速度研发。因此，在研发周期中不同步半步，意味着你可以拥有像我们年初那样的0.5秒优势。
“一个研发周期就会将其抹平。这感觉相当可怕。但你也知道，油箱里还有存货。只是我们何时带来我们的部件的问题。
“我们的策略就是努力保持领先，并确保我们交付的下一批性能将恢复原状，恢复我们在赛季初投入的优势。
“我们只需挺过这些可怕的时刻，即其他人带来他们所有花哨的新部件的时候。”
英文原文
Mercedes explains "out of phase" developments compared with other F1 teams
Despite starting the season on the front foot, a decision to push the W17's design to the limit left Mercedes "out of phase" in F1's 2026 development battle
Mercedes technical director James Allison says the team's decision to keep developing its 2026 Formula 1 car late has put it "out of phase" with the other teams around it, causing a leapfrog effect as in-season updates produce large performance gains.
The W17 has been the class of the field so far, starting out the year with a 1-2 finish in Australia and going on to claim eight wins in the opening 11 races of F1's new era. Although the team is the firm championship favourite, this has not stopped the likes of Ferrari and McLaren beating it to victories on merit over the course of 2026.
Allison, speaking on the team's Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show podcast, stated that the team was finding "about six to seven times" more lap time per week in the wind tunnel compared to last season. This demonstrates the difference between finding gains under a new ruleset compared to a more mature, end-of-life set of regulations.
He also revealed that the team had elected to push the design of its W17 car late. When teams design their cars, they usually elect a "design freeze" point, where the car will be manufactured as-is and further developments will be packaged up as updates for later in the season.
Mercedes chose to move that freeze point back, compressing the manufacturing time but allowing it to effectively include early-season updates into the launch car. Allison says that this had "less than no contingency" if issues arose, but it allowed the team to take advantage of the continued development curve.
"Aerodynamically, the gain rate for each passing week in the wind tunnel, the amount of lap time we find – that's the gain rate – is about six to seven times what it was last year," Allison said.
"It's about half a second every two months, something like that, so that's really, really steep. And we did everything in our power to launch a car at the start of the year that was going to be strong.
"Thank goodness it was a fair effort. But one of the things about our development strategy was we took a decision internally on the aerodynamic side and on the bodywork side of the car that we were going to leave it later than we've ever left a car before, by several weeks. And that we were going to do a plan that had less than no contingency in it.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, George Russell, Mercedes
"As a result of that plan, we got as much, that very, very steep development slope, we got as much of that steep development slope in the first car at the first race as I think was humanly possible to get in there. And we emptied everything out to do that. Other teams maybe didn't arrive with quite the sort of quite such a late braking, as close to the wire result. As a consequence, they updated their car sooner."
Allison says that, although this offered Mercedes an advantage at the start of the year, it left the team with nothing in the pipeline. This has put it "a race or two" behind its rivals in terms of producing updates, as it had to stock up on its further refinements.
He explained that a half-second advantage could be completely wiped out by the time other teams bring their updates, and this has left Mercedes potentially vulnerable while it awaits its own developments in the hope of restoring that advantage.
This explains the ebb-and-flow in performance between the teams; Ferrari found pace in Barcelona with a considerable update package, while McLaren's new floor in Hungary greased its own path to a first race win of the season.
"They fixed their car earlier in time, they then were developing the first upgrade to arrive sooner in the season. So we arrived, you know, bristling with performance, but with all of it spent," Allison continued.
"We've been filling up our tanks to give more, and we're a bit out of phase. And our development program, as a result of arriving early, is now running a race or two after the update rates of the others.
"It appears, looking at the lap times we're seeing, that everyone's on this same slope we're on. Everyone is developing around about half a second every two months. And so with that, being out of phase half a step with the development cycle means that you can have half a second like we did at the start of the year.
"One development cycle will bring that to nothing. And that feels quite scary. But also, you know that there's a load in the tank. It's just a question of when we're going to bring our bits.
"Our strategy is just to try to keep our nose ahead and to make sure that the next lump of performance that we deliver will restore the status quo ante, restore the goodness we put in at the beginning of the season.
"We just have to ride out these scary events where other people bring all their fancy new bits."
Autosport ·
内容来自公开信源，聚合内容版权归原作者与来源所有。