Major revamp for Mercedes

Updates: Schumacher in the W01

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Mercedes GP are to introduce a major set of updates for their W01 car at next month's Spanish Grand Prix.

Chief among them is a significant increase in the car's wheelbase, with a raft of aerodynamic changes also to be added for the race at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on May 9.

Explaining the decision to increase the wheelbase, team principal Ross Brawn said the introduction of narrower front tyres this season led them to miscalculate their car's weight distribution.

"We got the weight distribution wrong," Brawn admitted to autosport.com. "When we got to test these tyres we realised we didn't have the correct weight distribution and we went to the limit with what we could achieve with this car.

Struggle

"It is not the wheelbase as such, it is the weight distribution that is not what we wanted it.

"The tyres changed quite a bit...and we didn't have the opportunity to test these tyres, and we didn't have as good a guess of what was required as some of the other teams.

"So we will have a modification to the car at Barcelona which will give us a better range for the weight distribution that we can achieve."

The team will also be hoping that the changes can improve the fortunes of Michael Schumacher, who has so far struggled on his return to Formula One.

The seven-times world champion has grappled with understeer on his car, with attempts to rectify the problem last weekend in China also leading to a loss of rear-end grip.

Schumacher therefore struggled accelerating out of certain corners in Shanghai and having qualified ninth, he faded to 10th in the race.