Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes MP4-24

[timbo]

So, now McLaren guys started to drag floor around...
I wonder why)))

[BreezyRacer]

So, now McLaren guys started to drag floor around...
I wonder why)))

I suspect it's a new piece that was shipped in from the factory. The upper floor area ahead of the rear tire looks very different to me. Check out how deep the diffuser tunnels are and how the flat bottom is aligned with the tunnel inlets. I can imagine those tunnels are right up to the tranny. A great look at what we wonder those tunnels look like. Is it any wonder that it took half a season for everyone to catch up with Brawn?

[bill shoe]

If you look closely it appears there is some kind of electronic black-box/module in the space under where the diff goes.

[richard_leeds]

That undertray looks really different. Check out the upper area in front of the rear wheels. It looks like there there might be a vent there and it's shaped rather than flat. What a nice pic!

What a great pic, the clearest DDD I've seen. No doubt about how that works! Looks like they are going for twin caverns now, whereas a couple of races ago there was the single huge central cavern. interesting to see the development from the box like DDDs at the start of the season.

[n smikle]

It is still a double tunnel that leads to single opening like the the other teams. Mclaren just seems to design the tops looking round like that for some reason. The other teams have the tops of the tunnels flat and flush so it seems like one tunnel when it is really two underneath leading to one big opening.

[BreezyRacer]

It's hard to say from here but usually that rounded shape leads to building a vortex in the tunnel which creates an even lower pressure area in the tunnel. Vortex flow is also more compliant at staying attached to complex surfaces. Given that the sidepod/tail height of the McLaren is so high they have room for this without incurring add'l drag. A car with a low tail, like the RB5, would have a hard time doing that without pushing up the drag.

That's the reason why I wonder if the RB5 isn't optimally designed for a DD diffuser. They spent lots of packaging effort into lowering the tail and now with DD diffusers allowed they don't have as much wake as would be optimal. But then again they are going along pretty well and they can adjust the wake with the lower wing element .. it's just that the lower wing comes after the diffuser outlet instead of before it.

[Diesel]

Can someone find a good picture of the nose of the McLaren, the area above the push rods where there are two covers. In the one on the right there is a big bubble, almost as if they are running an aggressive setup on that side, and it's interesting it's only one side.