Mercedes W13

[Marty_Y]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/60697803

Formula 1 testing: Red Bull unhappy with Mercedes upgrade in Bahrain

By Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff said he was not concerned about any problems developing with the rules.

Wolff said governing body the FIA had been involved throughout the design process.

"It's clear that sometimes when you come with an innovation it creates the kind of debate we're having here," Wolff added. "It was expected.

"We were keen in not running alone with that, but being in touch with the FIA. That's why I think it will be OK."

[Edax]

Porpoising early in the day. Quite violent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmlbg_3AzSw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BEBIkt1hwQ

It was porpoising fully because Mercedes were experimenting with skid-boards on the outer edges of the floor. Thats probably what Russell's earlier comment was confirming. The ideal would be to keep the car close to the ground for maximum downforce, allow the porpoising, but mitigate any hard bouncing / damage to the car and make it comfortable for the driver I guess

Was looking at the regulations but the only things I could regarding skids I find was in reference to the plank. Would there be any loophole where you could use skids to seal the floor edge. Like a sliding skirt on the Lotus 79?

[AeroDynamic]

Brief Interview with Mike Elliot (TD) of Mercedes-AMG Formula One Team.

He says the reason why they are doing the sidepods is not because of the new steps they made in finding efficiencies in the build of the car. So in other words, the side pod concept is driven by aero concept they want to do, the aero benefits they believe it brings. Not the other way around.

I guess that sort of suggests that they think this is better than Ferrari's path, and perhaps the path each team took, was in part, dictated by which team could engineer it enough to work? Mercedes probably have the best boffins in engineering in the sport today.

@2:45



Listening further.. maybe its being suggested that the full size of the inlet opening doesn't have to be apparent at the outer most entry, maybe it can be tucked in deep inside the pocket of the inlet?

[hollus]

This post was made 15 pages ago with defective img links.

Hopefully still interesting and apologies if this has been posted in the last 15 pages. The thread moves so fast!

Cooling air intakes in the leading edge of the floor to compensate for the new side pods.

[LM10]

This.

Doing what they did gives them a lot of options when the sidepods are essentially just body work.

Maybe. Different engine cover shapes will be available to any team. They could build them straight down to the floor like this W13, it just requires lots of new panels.

Look at the exposed internals of the W13 and the F1-75. Ferrari can't just put some different panels on and mimic the Mercedes style of sidepod. They would also have to carry out a wholesale change in their radiator design and cooling philosophy. Other teams will not be as extreme a change as Ferrari, but even Red Bull will need to change radiator designs to go down a W13-style route.

Conversely, Mercedes can just bolt on some Ferrari or RedBull style sidepods with no internal changes other than maybe a few bits of CF to carry the panels. Dead easy for them to change philosophy.

As the very fact Ferrari has the least amount of centre line cooling and therefore the slimmest airbox and shaping around, is a key part of their concept. So I don’t see what benefits Mercedes would have of simply copying Ferrari’s sidepod design.

Both teams follow concepts which could not be more different from each other. For both teams it would be a pain in the … to copy each other‘s concept.

[NoDivergence]

Mike Elliot's statement in Ted's notebook. The sidepod is their concept to control front tire wake. There are ways to do it with a narrow and with a wide sidepod. As several of us were saying for quite some time now

Essentially this design is to prevent the tire wake from latching onto the bodywork is what Elliot is saying.

[till.a.fischer]

I noticed that something is turning under the bodywork.



The video (GIF) makes it more clear. Not sure how to embed this so here is a link to gfycat.
https://gfycat.com/unripetartbushbaby

Looks like cooling fan!
Interesting...
Good catch

Gesendet von meinem SM-G973F mit Tapatalk

[AR3-GP]

How would a fan be legal? What would stop someone installing a fan inside a duct and using it to increase the massflow to the diffuser at low speed?

[Holm86]

How would a fan be legal? What would stop someone installing a fan inside a duct and using it to increase the massflow to the diffuser at low speed?

Thats movable aero

[mantikos]

How would a fan be legal? What would stop someone installing a fan inside a duct and using it to increase the massflow to the diffuser at low speed?

That isn't a fan - not one I've ever seen at least

[Marty_Y]

Some great work from Albert Fabrega, sorry if these pictures have already been posted but it's good to have comparisons of the original W13 and the new upgraded W13 all together.

[AMG.Tzan]

These sidepods are what Newey has been dreaming of since the 2003 MP4/18 and what Ron Dennis was dreaming of in 2015 with the Honda PU...

[dans79]

So, this is an interesting development.

Earlier today the photos below where posted by w1thso claiming they showed air inlets on the leading edge of the floor. The only thing I see that "looks like" a hole doesn't look like it would even be big enough to keep the driver cool.

However, in the video NoDivergence posted (below), Mike Elliot said "further down in time people will see pictures from underneath and they'll work it out." when Ted asked him about how they were cooling the car. As expected Ted didn't pick up on this comment.

I quickly checked the technical regs, and I couldn't find anything that confirmed or dispelled my belief that you couldn't have have holes that allowed air to pass through the floor (bottom to top, or visa versa).

Can you have holes in the floor now?

Cooling air intakes in the leading edge of the floor to compensate for the new side pods.

[Spoutnik]

[imugli]

I'm sure Binotto wouldn't be saying it if he thought it would change their design. He is saying this because they banned the SF71H mirror design for a similar reason.

Both Adrian Newey and Steve Nichols have joked about Ferrari shooting their own foot before in this regard.

I remember the great double diffuser debacle. Ferrari were in the FIA court arguing that the holes that fed the diffuser was illegal. The barrister for the other side said something like "but it uses the same legal loop hole as the one you used on previous cars to win world championships. If this is illegal then weren't those cars also illegal?", "Yes" replied Ferrari.

Not to mention the second brake pedal on the McLaren MP4/12. Where they had it banned based on some argument about the way a tank steers, then eventually figured it out and went to the FIA to be told "That's exactly what you just had banned".