McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[Florio]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 246784.stm

BBC link instead of just Twitter updates.
I wonder how weak the rears really are, specially as Hamilton is known as quite hard on his tyres, and if it will be significantly different for Jenson.

[jgh]

One of the posts mentioned that the MP4-25 had a high CoG. Will the reintroduction of KERS and the weight of batteries help to reduce this.

[gridwalker]

Probably not : the high CoG for the 25 would have partially been caused by the integrated F Duct channels. Removing the F duct will help this, but KERS brings its own packaging problems.

We saw how poorly the KERS teams performed at the start of last season, which wasn't entirely related to their lack of DDD. The RB5 outperformed all of the KERS cars for most of the season, which was partially explained by a superior weight distribution.

KERS requires a lot of weight to be positioned in a sub-optimal position in order to harvest and then release the breaking energy. Much of this weight needs to be placed at the height of the axle line or drive shaft, which places the weight much higher than would be preferred.

The larger capacity fuel tank compared to 2009 cars will also introduce a whole new raft of limitations into the design, so we are likely to see even more highly compromised (or, hopefully, inventive) packaging solutions than we saw when F1 first attempted to go hybrid.

[raymondu999]

Welcome to the forums jgh

Part of McLaren's reason too is that they had a mammoth diffuser. A diffuser is mostly channels to let air through, and air as we know has no weight... hence the high COG.

[Tim.Wright]

One of the posts mentioned that the MP4-25 had a high CoG. Will the reintroduction of KERS and the weight of batteries help to reduce this.

You have to be careful of reading statements like that on this forum. Especially if you've only seen it once (i.e. not confirmed by anyone else). People speculate about something (not bad in itself) but then other people read it as fact.

The fact is there is nothing to suggest McLaren have a high CoG. Sounds like pretty handwavy claim to me since there is no way of getting a feeling for the CG height from looking at the car.

Tim

[Florio]

Some fair points made here. Packaging of KERS was very difficult to any team wishing to run it in 2009, and with the larger fuel tanks, weight distribution will be even more critical.

[spinmastermic]

Why is Lewis in the number 4 car next year?
He got more points than button this year. It seems a bit odd but maybe he prefers even numbers?

[BorisTheBlade]

The reasoning behind that statement is that they concentrated on having much space for their comparably large diffusor at the bottom of their car. Therefore they had to package heavy components higher while the diffusor in itsself has almost no weight per occupied space i.e. density.
Same could be said for Ferrari as well. It was speculated (by many sources) that they had angled their engine in order to make way for a larger diffusor.

[alelanza]

Hmmm... interesting. Do we know how much larger it was than the avg diffuser and thus which components were relocated?

[raymondu999]

@gridwalker, sorry if I came across as sarcastic. I wasn't. Boris is right on the marks when it came to my comment.

[Intego]

Ferrari and another team that I don't remember were said to have angled engines, I also read that even before Bahrain (Ferrari with 3.5°).

Another explanation for the confusion here is that when presenting the MP4/25 MCL chiefs said that they had to raise some components like cooling channels etc. to fit the bigger tank to distract the competitors from their f-duct.

[Florio]

It wasn't just Ferrari and McLaren doing it, Red Bull too http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2010/0/721.html
Here is the engine angling on the Ferrari
http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2010/0/719.html

[Intego]

Sorry, that link only shows Red Bull's raised gearbox, no angled engine. Sorry for being niggling.

[Intego]

Sorry, that link only shows Red Bull's raised gearbox, no angled engine. Sorry for being niggling.

The second link should suffice then

Yeah, for Ferrari, I knew that. Do you have a MCL-link?

[Florio]

Sorry, that link only shows Red Bull's raised gearbox, no angled engine. Sorry for being niggling.

The second link should suffice then

Yeah, for Ferrari, I knew that. Do you have a MCL-link?

McLaren never angled their engine. It was only Ferrari that angled the engine, they may have raised the gearbox like RB.