Mercedes AMG F1 W04 (pre-launch speculation)

[Morteza]

So is it gonna be a completely new chassis? Is it worth doing so when we're gonna have a major change in technical rules for 2014? I simply have no idea how it's gonna pan out for Mercedes. They have shown they can start with a good car and go backwards during the season.

[MercAMGF1Fans]

Right I thought I'd start this off.. considering the last speculation thread went all the way to 200+ pages.

We know that the W04 is not going to be an evolution of the w03, but a complete new design.
Key points to note -
Mike Elliot - Head of Aero - Loic Bigois, has left the team back in June.
Head of the Project overall is Aldo Costa - from what Ross said a few months ago.
John Owen is still the Chief Designer.

[Raptor22]

the only certainty is that it will be another dog.
Mercedes still do not understand W03, hence they are abandoning the concept started with W02.
Failing to understand W03 seems to indicate there's an engineering management problem within the engineering team. Either they don't have the right resources, or they have too many top names with too much portfolio overlap or the list could be endless as to where their problems lie.
My bet is for at least more consistent performance from W04 and a solid mid field performer with Lewis mythical 0.4secs bring it home just off the podium regularly.
They will likely luck into another win

[MercAMGF1Fans]

the only certainty is that it will be another dog.
Mercedes still do not understand W03, hence they are abandoning the concept started with W02.
Failing to understand W03 seems to indicate there's an engineering management problem within the engineering team. Either they don't have the right resources, or they have too many top names with too much portfolio overlap or the list could be endless as to where their problems lie.
My bet is for at least more consistent performance from W04 and a solid mid field performer with Lewis mythical 0.4secs bring it home just off the podium regularly.
They will likely luck into another win

you say that, but remember - they had to make the transition from the 50% model to the 60% model - and from what Bob Bell said that's quite a huge step.
Also, now that they have full Daimler ownership, I'm sure more resources (not just money) will pour in from Stuttgart. whether that be process management, or other operational resources we don't know.

Back on to the topic of the Car itself. Concepts that are being carried over is the Coanda effect exhaust, and the super-trick suspension, and from what has been said as they're ditching the DDRS they'll be able to make more in-roads with front wing development. which is where they've been lacking all this time, as the DDRS elements in the front wing were a bit of a "bottle-neck" in development terms

[kris]

Do they need a fresh understanding of the tyres with a new chasis?

[astracrazy]

they didn't understand the W03 because of there wind tunnel and because they spent to much time trying to find the performance with the tyres. At the start i remember Ross saying he thought that is where the gains were at. I guess they went the wrong way with it.

I expect a big improvement on the W04. The W03 was just hugely under developed and was floored from the DDRS as well.

[Sevach]

Haug (was it Brawn?) already said the W04 will feature a coanda exhaust, it's removal this weekend was to evaluate other things.

[MercAMGF1Fans]

Haug (was it Brawn?) already said the W04 will feature a coanda exhaust, it's removal this weekend was to evaluate other things.

Both said it actually

[Holm86]

I thought they removed it because it blew too much heat into the rear tires.

[sidmiester]

I am happy that DDRS will be gone.

hope they dont waste time and resources on passive one!

i am expecting some development with front wings, floors, diffusers, chassis, rear wings.. and they need to do that through out the season, not wait 5-6 races before they bring new upgrades..

any chances that any teams incl. merc will follow ferrari's route to bring back, front pull rod suspension?

[Sevach]

The official line was "we are taking it out of the car for evaluation of car progress, but it's a sure thing for the W04", at least publicly they didn't admit to it causing trouble.

[MercAMGF1Fans]

So What's been confirmed by the "team" (Ross/Norb/Bob/Lauda) about the W04
1. Complete re-design (new car from scratch)
2. Front wing development
3. Coanda exhaust
4. Possible DRD
5. Major step in aero dev
6. Hydro-interlinked suspension ( see the piece by Bob on the W03 thread posted by Forza)

[silvertouringz]

I hope it won't by ugly like the w02 and 3

[Sevach]

So What's been confirmed by the "team" (Ross/Norb/Bob/Lauda) about the W04
1. Complete re-design (new car from scratch)
2. Front wing development
3. Coanda exhaust
4. Possible DRD
5. Major step in aero dev
6. Hydro-interlinked suspension ( see the piece by Bob on the W03 thread posted by Forza)

Regarding point 2, Mercedes said that their DDRS restricted what kind of front wings they could use so we might see some major differences.

Point 5 is just lol honestly, everybody is gonna be pushing their aero development as much as possible...

[MercAMGF1Fans]

Regarding point 2, Mercedes said that their DDRS restricted what kind of front wings they could use so we might see some major differences.

Point 5 is just lol honestly, everybody is gonna be pushing their aero development as much as possible...

well not exactly, because their self confessed weakness was Aero - so naturally we'll expect a better aero package, and mind you they have a Mike Elliot onboard who's been an aero wizz