Mercedes F1 W03

The Mercedes F1 W03 was the Formula One car the Mercedes AMG Petronas team designed for the 2012 season, the last of Michael Schumacher's career, which he shared with Nico Rosberg. It was launched on 21 February, after a shakedown at Silverstone, and its distinctive feature was a front wing system in which air channelled from vents exposed when the rear wing's drag reduction flap opened was used to cancel front downforce. Rivals challenged the system before the Australian Grand Prix and again in China, but the FIA and the stewards found it permissible. At the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix Rosberg took the team's first pole position and win since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. Mercedes finished fifth in the Constructors' Championship with 142 points, with three podiums and one victory.