Mercedes remain tight-lipped on where they've spent their tokens

Mercedes have refused to reveal where they've spent their tokens for the chassis development, but have listed a range of updates for their power unit. The seven-time World Champions revealed their 2021 F1 challenger, the W12, on Tuesday morning. 

Keeping it secret 

During the car reveals over the last few weeks, most teams have revealed where they've spent their tokens. McLaren's attention was focused on fitting their new Mercedes engine, while teams further down the grid focused on the front-wing. 

"What's carried over will look different from team to team, because the rules didn't require you to carry over the same things," said James Allison. "The rules freeze a large chunk of the car, but then give each team two tokens to spend on changing their car. Along with the tokens comes a shopping list showing how many tokens are required for each change. How teams decided what to use their tokens on was entirely up to them.

"In addition, there are some parts of the car that you can change token-free, for example, the Power Unit, the cooling systems, the suspension and of course all of the aerodynamic surfaces. We have spent our tokens, but we won't reveal how we used them just yet. That'll become clear in good time. 

Engine improvements

Perhaps what is most scary to their rivals is the power unit upgrades. Mercedes haven't been tight-lipped over engine developments. Honda, who work with Red Bull Racing, also made some significant steps with the power unit. 

In the press release launched with the W12, the engine is discussed in further detail. 

"We identified three main areas to work on: first, we've continued the development of the technology in the Power Unit. That's a continuous process, and we feel like we've been able to take a step forward on that front again this year," said Hywel Thomas. 

"The second area is reliability. We discovered some design issues last year, so we've been looking at those and introduced some changes to address them. And we've also got some completely new innovations that will be in the racing PU for the first time. That was particularly challenging because last season finished late, so the winter period has been shorter than normal and has given us less time to prepare, which put extra strain on the business."