Mercedes AMG F1 W03

[Gridlock]

Scarbs is always asking those who own a CF gearbox casing to weigh it, I think they came in about 12.5kg? Anyone want to weigh a Ti one?

Are there any nom-obvious gains from the CF casing, i.e. reduced weight ancillaries or mounts for suspension etc, flex?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Are there any nom-obvious gains from the CF casing, i.e. reduced weight ancillaries or mounts for suspension etc, flex?

By using the Carbon cased gearbox, mass can be lowered in the form of ballast. It also gives them a wider setup range. Depends where Mercedes want to put the mass, as they still have to fall within the bounds of the mandated weight distribution.
Basically a lower unsprung mass is what most teams will look for.
Basic, but explains it fairly well here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsprung_mass

Im wondering too if the Red Bull "hole in the floor" could be adapted to the W03.
Any team in the pitlane would benefit with speeding up the airflow under the car, and this simple yet controversial development will be seen sooner rather than later on most cars IMO.
On the RB8 it redirects oncoming airflow as well as exhaust flow. How Mercedes could utilise it depends on their exhaust philosophy, but it would still work with airflow coming from the front of the car around the sidepods and back as this would still have usable energy to help speed up flow beneath the floor.

[Ferraripilot]

I have to hand some big credit over to Merc for their sidepod developement. I certainly was not expecting a change this quick and radical as it required crash testing. They are serious and I believe if they keep things up in Canada they could be in a good position to hunt for the WCC.

[dren]

an improvement is an improvement ,Monaco or not .
The push at the rear they made is considerable with everything new from the engine rear face to the back...new uprights ,brake drums ,carbon fibre gearbox ...in fact the biggest upgrade ever coming from Mercedes GP -with new sidepods and a new front nose ...very impressive.

It's nice to see the team pump out performance updates rather than trying to engineer cooling solutions instead.

I fully expect these new upgrades to do well in Canada. It looks like the team is on top of the tires. If this is indeed the case, Rosberg has a serious title fight in the works.

I didn't notice the sidepods were tighter in the race. The nose is hard to notice also. All very subtle upgrades, but all on a rather large scale.

[Ferraripilot]

The sidepods simply have a larger undercut at the turning vanes areas. I believe they also have a series of two other directing vanes which sprout from the floor which are minor to the larger upright turning vane.

[n smikle]

Up and down yes - for vertical. but for longitudinal and lateral center of gravity, for every weight you move forwards, another mass has to move rearwards to keep the weight distribution within the rules, up to that 7kg leeway. Doesn't the 342 rear 291 front regulation effectively cancel out shifting the center of gravity longitudinally anyways?

You can still reduce the radius of gyration In addition to reducing the centre of gravity.. all while having the same front to rear weight distribution.

[n smikle]

Scarbs is always asking those who own a CF gearbox casing to weigh it, I think they came in about 12.5kg? Anyone want to weigh a Ti one?

Are there any nom-obvious gains from the CF casing, i.e. reduced weight ancillaries or mounts for suspension etc, flex?

The weight is close. Sorry I don't know how much kg, but this is because you have to use multiple layers of carbon to make up for geometry requirements and buckling requirements. I think Lotus uses a metal gearbox.

The only reason I think Mercedez only brought of the CF gearbox after the 6th race is simply a matter of reliability, testing and production. Metal is more reliable when you are setting something up and want to eliminate any weird factors. You don't want to spend thousands of pounds making 4 or 5 un-raced carbon gearboxes only to arrive in testing and find out there is something wrong with it - then you have to dump the 4 you made and go back to spending more dinero to make ones. I think it's just playing it smart why that have brought that gearbox to the 6th race.

[richard_leeds]

Team posts moved to the team thread viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12070&view=unread#unread

Development facts or bust!

[Lycoming]

it is true that carbon is really not very well suited for gearbox casings considering the high number of point loads and the high temperatures involved. Reliability is a legitimate reason to hold off running it, considering the number of premature gearbox changes that have already occurred this season. I'm still curious as to how much of a weight savings they actually make.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Gary Andersons' take on the latest W03 updates


via AutoSport

[ForMuLaOne]

I guess i am not the only one who noticed that the MGP W03 was the only car which drove easily over the bump in Monaco, i think it`s somewhere around Mirabeu. They also did this with full fuel load in the race. So, although Scarbs mentioned that the suspension technology they are meant to race with is something that had been used by other teams for some years now, the MGP W03 seems to have some tweaks on it. The moment i am talking about is also mentioned in this Sky footage.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-QdCMkd ... re=related

We also did not see any lock ups in the bumpy areas of the track, something i saw a lot at Sauber`s cars for example. So, there has to be something special about the car`s suspension, as the difference is signifcant.

[Gridlock]

Not necessairly, the bump is avoided by most because it can ruin your braking, as I understand, not to protect the plank. So their brakes could be special. Or their drivers. Did MSC take that line in his Ferrari days?

[dren]

Their braking stability has been good. Perhaps this is because of an anti-dive arrangement. The same for traction...maybe anti-squat?

[Lycoming]

I don't see how anti squat helps power on traction. Anti dive may improve braking stability by maintaining optimal orientation of the aerodynamics and combatting porpoising but at the rear... well perhaps the same occurs with the diffuser, maintaining its high rake, but it wouldn't do much for mechanical traction as the load transfer occurs anyways

[marcush.]

anti -geometrie is easily detected with visible wishbones ...so draw the lines and compare to others´work...