Mercedes AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+

[turbof1]

Did they change the wheel ribs?

They removed those. Could be due the high altitude requiring more cooling.

Cooling for what? the tyres? Because they can control tyre temps in the blankets and open the ducts for the brakes.

It's not as simple as that unfortunaly. The issue we are mainly seeing, is blistering. Blistering happens when the inside of the tyre is cold while the tread becomes excessively warm. So the issue is that the heat is not evenly spread out across the whole tyre. This has nothing to do with tyre blankets as it happens while the car is driving around. To avoid this, Mercedes try to blow more hot air on the inside of the tyre. All great and dandy, but on circuits like Mexico where air density is lower heat will quickly build up more. Next to temperature differences across your tyre, you also want to avoid outright too high temperatures for your whole tyre.

You can compare this to 230°C in space to 70°C sitting in water. Because you are sitting in way less mass (practically none) in space, you will not burn as there is little mass to sufficiently conduct the heat. You will probably be going to the hospital however when you sit in 70°C water for a few seconds. Apply that on Mexico, where there is less air density meaning less mass to conduct heat from the tyres and brakes onto, meaning much more heat buildup.

Some literature on that: http://www.insideracingtechnology.com/tirebkexerpt3.htm

[PlatinumZealot]

We need to see the rear wheel hubs...
I dont see where the air comes from to go into the middle of the rim... The outer discharge point looks to shoot air tangentially. . Not sure if into the spokes or the barrel of the wheel... Need a side view.

Any more ideas?



Looks like a different material lines inside the wheel where the holes are. For insulation purposes of course. This thing is designed to prevent heat transfer to the centre part of the wheel.

[gandharva]

AMUS now also has an article about the topic.
https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... es-felgen/

This is the relevant part for Mexico:

Mercedes will only fall back on the perforated rims again when the world federation confirms in black and white that they are secure against protests. The negotiations in Mexico are underway.

So I think Mercedes most likely has brought both specs to Mexico and is now just waiting for confirmation.

[ivan599]

[BassVirolla]

These small holes seem to be connected to the big ones in the inner part of the wheel spokes. To me, this looks like a centrifugal cooling.

Added to that, that blackish / dark material in the part of the rim which contacts with the hub looks like bakelite or some class of heat isolation.

By the looks of that, I'd bet they're trying to get the tire away from the heat of the brakes.

Edit: Giving it another thought, i think that correlates with the apparent troubles they have with the raisings in the lower tire pressures. Possibly they are already rising their pressures with an excesive heat transfer from the brakes and they want to avoid that, allowing them to not being always in the lower limit at the start of the race but excesively above that during the race.

[zac510]

They are so small it's hard to imagine them moving significant volumes of air. Are they not more something to do with just equalizing pressure across each end of the hole?

[GrandAxe]

Mercedes solution is most likely a heat engine. For how that might work, here's a post I made in 2013 concerning same Mercedes and same tyre problem:

The fact that brake temps are so high makes them a suitable candidate as high quality heat sources to drive a thermodynamic engine. Why would Merc want to heat their tyres when their problem has always been overheating?

Heat pipes, vortex tubes etc are very straightforward devices that can be employed in a wheel.
I'm not saying this is the exact solution, but check this Wikipedia article on the vortex tube as an example of a very mechanically simple device that can be employed as a heat pump for cooling purposes, it is fed compressed air which it splits into a hot and a cold stream at either outlet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube


Courtesy Wikipedia

Here's a YouTube video showing how to make a DIY vortex tube:

[zibby43]

Open holes today.

https://twitter.com/albertfabrega/statu ... 03648?s=21

[LM10]

Meaning: In FIA’s opinion the holes don’t have any aerodynamic effect?

[dans79]

Meaning: In FIA’s opinion the holes don’t have any aerodynamic effect?

it's not the primary effect.

Everything has an aerodynamic effect, for example the break duct inlets, but no one complains about them.

[LM10]

Meaning: In FIA’s opinion the holes don’t have any aerodynamic effect?

it's not the primary effect.

Everything has an aerodynamic effect, for example the break duct inlets, but no one complains about them.

Who tells that it’s not the primary effect? Mercedes?

Anyway, I think that the rules say that there shouldn’t be any aerodynamic benefit.

[ringo]

Whatever they are doing is more likely for heating the rim.
There are simpler more direct ways of cooling the wheels and tyres.
Those holes don't lead to anyhwere. It couldn't lead to inside of the tyre, as the tyre wouldnt be able to hold pressure.
They can even be something as simply as making a tyre change during a pitstop quicker, by preventing a stuck wheel rim, or clearing air out of the little space btween the hub and wheel as it swings onto the hub.

What's evident from the cake tin picture, is there is a slot going across its width that blows a blanket of hot air onto the little bumps on the inner face of the rim to heat the rims. With this in place i don't think they are trying to cool the rims.

[Morteza]

https://twitter.com/tgruener/status/1055499006518931457

[aral]

i would be extremely sceptical about that report. there is absolutely no way that there could be that cross balance anomaly, unless there was a mechanic hiding in one of the sidepods.
amus has certainly come up with some absurd comments recently.

[subcritical71]

i would be extremely sceptical about that report. there is absolutely no way that there could be that cross balance anomaly, unless there was a mechanic hiding in one of the sidepods.
amus has certainly come up with some absurd comments recently.

Maybe a missing comma? If this were true though wouldn't they be the envy of the paddock with that much ballast and more to more around (as this was the imbalance)!