Mercedes AMG F1 W03

[raymondu999]

Maybe a diagram to show what you mean?

[kilcoo316]

I'm not so optimistic. This 2 day tests have been dissapointing

Seriously?


I'll get on the phone to Ross now and tell him to ditch the testing plan, Mestrades wants to win the winter world championship.

[horse]

Does anyone know why Merc decided to go for a shorter width rear wing this year? This is the only car I remember seeing, where the full 20mm width is used right next to the wing planes. Usually, this area of the rear wing is as thin as possible, to maximise wing area

It may be because the wing actuators are in the endplates. So they sacrifice some width to get a cleaner airflow to the middle of the wings.

[kilcoo316]

Does anyone know why Merc decided to go for a shorter width rear wing this year? This is the only car I remember seeing, where the full 20mm width is used right next to the wing planes. Usually, this area of the rear wing is as thin as possible, to maximise wing area

I'll bet you it (the endplate) has a complex 3D curvature integrated with the wing to ever-so-slightly improve the "lift" vector[1] of and/or overall lift of the rear wing[2].


[1] Through increased localised acceleration at the lowest section of the rear wing 1st element suction surface.

[2] Through so-so-slight reductions in the adverse pressure gradient on the suction surface of the 2nd element.


Oh, and needless to say, where it matters, the endplates will not be thicker than they need to be and the suction surface area will be maximised.

[jordangp]

Does anyone know why Merc decided to go for a shorter width rear wing this year? This is the only car I remember seeing, where the full 20mm width is used right next to the wing planes. Usually, this area of the rear wing is as thin as possible, to maximise wing area

It may be because the wing actuators are in the endplates. So they sacrifice some width to get a cleaner airflow to the middle of the wings.

Advantage of doing this? Force India did that last year, but don't remember endplates being that thick.

[jordangp]

Does anyone know why Merc decided to go for a shorter width rear wing this year? This is the only car I remember seeing, where the full 20mm width is used right next to the wing planes. Usually, this area of the rear wing is as thin as possible, to maximise wing area

I'll bet you it (the endplate) has a complex 3D curvature integrated with the wing to ever-so-slightly improve the "lift" vector[1] of and/or overall lift of the rear wing[2].


[1] Through increased localised acceleration at the lowest section of the rear wing 1st element suction surface.

[2] Through so-so-slight reductions in the adverse pressure gradient on the suction surface of the 2nd element.

Yeah you can see that curvature above the elements, as teams have for yearsnow underneath the wing elements. I also wonder why they have shaped the endplate like this? Red bull has always had a curve in the endplate under the main plane, and the beam wing, leaving the endplate thin at the top, to maximise wing area also. Mercedes seem to be doing the opposite to this.

[Mestrades]

Nico Rosberg


“It was good to get into proper testing today. Early in the morning, it was a bit too cold on the track to collect some decent information, however later we were able to get into our planned work. In the afternoon session, unfortunately we had a transmission oil leak which meant that I wasn’t able to complete any further running. That doesn’t affect my positive feelings about our test programme, and things like that can happen in the early stages of running a new car. Now I am looking forward to driving again on Friday.”

[Schurcedes]

After the disappointments of the past two seasons I decided I would be happy if the W03 was a quick car even if reliability wasn't up to par. We don't know if it is quick enough but it does not seem to be a poor car either, driver impressions have been fairly positive so far. Though I admit losing both afternoon sessions to issues has me a bit worried.

[horse]

Advantage of doing this? Force India did that last year, but don't remember endplates being that thick.

Mercedes had the same system last year too! Hang on, quick image hunt.... I mean long image hunt in the W02 thread. And here...



It looks quite similar really. I think it's an electric system, so the motors can only be so small. As I said, the point (of the end plate actuators) is to get rid of the central activator and improve flow to the centre of the wing.

I couldn't tell you the relative advantages of it, though. The pressure side is less sensitive than the suction side anyway.

[Mr.S]

There will be Small Reliability issues. Almost all cars have it. That is not a specific problem with W03. That is why I always said Missing jerez test was a bad idea.

Anyways What is important is the pace in the long runs & that is what counts. Those are decent. For a brand new car with little setup work THAT is fine.

[raymondu999]

Well for what it's worth the BGP001 lineage until last year has seemed to always be very compliant to setup - if you changed setup it was reflected in the handling. That much was said in 2009; and in 2010/2011 when they stopped car development their car was basically just "developed" by furthering the team's understanding of the car's setup sweet spots.

[Owen.C93]

Well for what it's worth the BGP001 lineage until last year has seemed to always be very compliant to setup - if you changed setup it was reflected in the handling. That much was said in 2009; and in 2010/2011 when they stopped car development their car was basically just "developed" by furthering the team's understanding of the car's setup sweet spots.

Yeah, Virgin managed to close the gap to Lotus by at least a second without bringing a single aero update just by focusing on setup last year (or maybe the year before).

[marcush.]

it´s not uncommon to have problems popping up after some serious running on day 2 3 and 4 with a new car .You might even provoke these things just to get an idea how far you can go with certain aspects of your layout.
Better find your limits early .Considering the lowish ambient temps they are sure a bit on the hot side with everything in that tight rear...but wonderful insulation coatings are aroundand surely all people involved in F1 have realised by now that gold foil is not the answer usually.

[pocketmoon]

Also, I would like to point out that on this photo and on the one that was posted above, you can see two pipes coming out of the engine cover where the redbull has the '' cannon '' cooling outlet.


http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/2396 ... 2fe120.jpg

That surely cant be exaust, are they piping the airflow from the rads to there?

That looks like exhaust is angled upwards a fair bit

[Ferraripilot]

Gearbox leak. They must have not sealed it with Threebond 1194. Brilliant stuff. It's the only stuff I can get a old Ferrari oil pan to not leak with.