The Mercedes W-Duct is affordable but difficult to copy
Ross Brawn revealed that the F-Duct or W-Duct system implemented by the German team during the activation of the DRS is not very expensive to produce, but it is complicated to integrate if it was not included from the design phase of a single-seater.
Ross Brawn, the director of the Mercedes AMG team, was keen to dispel the rumors that the system implemented by Mercedes during activation is expensive and therefore hard to replicate by other F1 teams. Brawn stated that it was a simple system but complicated to implement in a car that wasn’t designed around this system.
The system is actually very inexpensive. It’s a simple and inexpensive system, but it’s not easy to implement if you haven’t integrated it into your single-seater. That might be where the frustration of our rivals comes from, Ross Brawn recently stated.
The Briton goes even further, stating that in the end, this system comes down to a few pipes running through the F1 W03: People talk about the very high cost, but it’s not that expensive. You all know that it’s just a few carbon tubes running from one end of the car to the other, and anyone can tell you that it only costs a few thousand euros – we’re not talking about millions of euros.
What makes the difference according to Ross Brawn is that Mercedes integrated this system right from the design phase of their car in order to perfectly optimize it: The benefit comes from the fact that we thought about and designed the car around this system, and it is not so easy to integrate for those who do not have it – and that’s why our rivals are so fierce. It’s a recognition of the fact that it is something complicated to do if you haven’t designed it from the start. That’s the nature of F1.
