Mercedes AMG F1 W03 (pre-launch speculation)

[ell66]

I'll wait till the car is unveiled and we get an idea of the pace, even if we have to wait till Australia, but i think missing the first test is a very strange and illogical decision.

it was clear last year they had 4th place in the constructors from quite an early stage, they should of thrown everything at 2012 and been ready out the box to use up all the track time they could, i dont hold much hope...but id like to be wrong, would be cool to see the mercs up there.

[Schurcedes]

Throwing everything at the new car and getting it ready in time would achieve little if there was an innovation worth a not-insignificant gain in performance that seemingly only reached a mature stage towards the end of the 2011 season (RRH or the FWFD) If they had gone down the conservative path perhaps they would have made it to the first test, but likely at the expense of a well-developed 'trick' system and 3-5 tenths in laptime (someone suggested the FWFD was worth 5 tenths, I believe)

They would have been aware at least one of these budding innovations was going to come under scrutiny and\or be banned in the winter and probably decided to extend development time accordingly. IIRC it was Brawn that pointed out possible loopholes in the interpretation of the '12 regs, they would not be stupid enough to design their car around a dodgy system as some here would have us believe. For all we know they could be working on implementing an interesting solution in the exhaust\sidepod\rear wing area and that is taking up the extra dev time, not the RRH.

I am sure they know what they're doing.

[volarchico]

I am sure they know what they're doing.

Strangely this sounds like what a lot of people were saying exactly one year ago about this same team.

They know what they are doing well enough to get 4th place, true. What's left to be seen is if they know any better than that.

[Mr.S]

That is a lame excuse. Everyone will have a new innovation. Ferrari are claiming to have or according to sources multiples key innovation & ofcourse RBR & Mclaren will have something new. But every TEAM in the grid is debuting their new car in the 1st TEST. With the new regs about only 3 Pre-season tests,even 1/2 a day is Very precious.

The only teams not debuting their new car are HRT & Virgin(oops Marussia). That says a lot,doesn't it how crucial those few testing days are.

It's undoubtedly not the RIGHT approach. It's a COMPROMISE. Even Ross admitted it,that they had to make a compromise & took this route. Now the least I expect them is too come up with something major. Or a Fundamentally good car withing 0.5s off pole time. Not some far fetched expectation.


No-one knows how much the F-duct gives if any. It's all speculation. Who knows,maybe more than 1 team will debut their new car with the F-duct Front Wing. This is already starting on a back-foot but they can still make up for it. The car has been in preparation for 6-7 months now & I dont believe that 2 weeks odd is going to give them 0.5s. As Mercedes says it gives them 0.05s a week so that is 0.1s. 1 Tenth. Not a lot.

Anyways I hope Mercedes knows what they are doing. This could be MSC's last season. I dont want another dud of a car. The RRH ban comes accross as a big blow for me.

[dren]

Sounds like the Ferrari and possibly the Mclaren will have short floors...just like Mercedes tried with its last car, but they will retain a longer wheelbase for better packaging, CofG, etc. The sidepods are moved back with the crash structure up front doubling as wings. Pretty cool. Maybe Mercedes has found a way to retain the optimal short floor while stretching the wheelbase too?

[dren]

Can you explain this bit of excellent engineering a bit for us? I'm not sure I'm grasping how the front suspension could be opposed to dive when linked to the rear. Could perhaps rear heave cause a reaction to front mounted interconnected cylinders which softened the front and vice versa?? Although I think the system would react independantly to each wheel. The integrated hydraulics are sort of mind boggling to think about really.

Scarbs has a good write-up on the rear hydraulicly linked suspension. Basically the dampers are all linked. There potentially exist valves that switch based on acceleration forces so the system can oppose heave, pitch and roll. It's easy to see with the diagrams Scarbs drew up here: http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/10/1 ... uspension/

[Metalrulz]

I was wondering if the FWFD instead of stalling the front wing could be used to blow more air over the front wing especially in high speed corners and provide additional downforce rather than stalling and providing greater straight line speed as stalling air over the front wing will not increase the top speed significantly.

Also we may FINALLY see a proper 3 element front wing and tighter sidepods with a beam wing positioned slightly upwards to make use of the hot air being blown out of the engine cover

[MIKEY_!]

With your idea for the FWFD you must remember that the intakes for this device can only be on the FW itself. That makes such a system useless in the case of improving airflow to the FW when following another car closely. Speeding up the air would be the main challenge. The air flowing over and under the wing would have to be faster than normal flow (ambient) to be effective. Otherwise this just becomes a blown FW so you may as well use ordinary slots.

[MercAMGF1Fans]

Mercedes say Nico's been in the factory today getting his seat fit done for the new car.

[krizalid1001]

Can anyone translate this even if I don't know if this website is reliable enough.

http://www.boxgp.com/formula-1/item/163 ... rcedes-amg

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PS: I'm a new member so please excuse my little experience and my poor english

[neilbah]

well it seems to imply the Fia have dealt a blow to mercedes by making the ride height control system illegal in its interpretation as well as that of lotus, a technology where resources have been aimed at by Ross Brawn to gain an advantage this year may now have been a waste, but maybe its speculative and not fact..

[PlatinumZealot]

If the design of the car was crap before the device... it will still be crap after the device. So I am sure Brawn and Co. focused on the fundamental aero issues of the car. After all, The RRH device only lifts the car a few millimeters under braking. The wings and floor will still work as designed, just under a wider range of conditions, (could add a bit more rake too to help the floor with it).

And Remember they have the other 80% of the lap to design for too.

[MercAMGF1Fans]

If the design of the car was crap before the device... it will still be crap after the device. So I am sure Brawn and Co. focused on the fundamental aero issues of the car. After all, The RRH device only lifts the car a few millimeters under braking. The wings and floor will still work as designed, just under a wider range of conditions, (could add a bit more rake too to help the floor with it).

And Remember they have the other 80% of the lap to design for too.

ah yes, the long straights of the modern tilke-dromes

[dren]

Can anyone translate this even if I don't know if this website is reliable enough.

http://www.boxgp.com/formula-1/item/163 ... rcedes-amg

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PS: I'm a new member so please excuse my little experience and my poor english

This is saying the system Mercedes had was a hydraulically linked front and rear suspension that used mercury as the fluid. This is rumored to be what Lotus used to run or developed; it is what lead them to the fluid inerter.

[xpensive]

Mercury for hydraulic fluid?

Mercury have a density of 13.5 (hydraulic oil about 0.88), which within a 2.5 meter long line from rear to front would create a pressure of 13.5 Bar under 4g deceleration. If this pressure would affect an 80 mm diameter hydraulic cylinder it would create 6800 N (680 kg) of force, probably enough to lift the suspension on each front wheel to raise the nose.

So that's what it was all about, clever, no wonder they wanted to spend time on it, such a shame if it was banned?