{"id":484467,"date":"2026-02-19T04:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484467\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T04:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:03:11","slug":"mercedes-brings-substantial-upgrade-to-final-f1-test-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484467\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes brings substantial upgrade to final F1 test week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mercedes has debuted a sizeable upgrade package on the first day of the final 2026 Formula 1 pre-season test in Bahrain.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-race.com\/formula-1\/full-2026-bahrain-f1-test-one-results-fastest-times-total-laps\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ended the first Bahrain test last week on top<\/a>, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell are splitting driver duties on the first day of the second Bahrain test.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/W17-t10-pod-view.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Mercedes has brought a number of changes to its W17 in Bahrain for this week, including a revised sidepod shape that\u2019s more compact at the rear end.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also a new vane on the top of the sidepod and an adjusted wing mirror mount compared to the first Bahrain test, which is much straighter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/W17-pod-strake--BAH-W2-D1.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>There appear to be floor changes too, with a revised rear floor corner.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/W17-t10-brakes-view.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>It has revised brake ducts at the front of the car, as well as a new front wing endplate that incorporates the trend of horizontal vanes seen across various teams, including McLaren.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/W17-FW-BAH-W2-D1-.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>At the rear of the car, there\u2019s a slightly revised engine cover that houses the exhaust, and revised cooling gills on the top of the sidepods.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/w17-cooling.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\"  \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes has debuted a sizeable upgrade package on the first day of the final 2026 Formula 1 pre-season&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-484467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}