Mercedes W13

[dans79]

here we go @Tvetovnato originally posted it.
viewtopic.php?p=1042099#p1042099

[AR3-GP]

Perhaps the floor changes are related to the tunnels and diffuser? That kind of detail will be hard to see. If you are just looking at the floor edge detailing in front of the rear tire, maybe that's not where the changes are.

[cooken]

They aren't designing and building a new floor in 5 days. This will be something that has been under development for weeks. Maybe it wasn't ready to bring to Bahrain, or maybe they ran a simpler/earlier spec floor for strategic reasons.

[Marty_Y]

here we go @Tvetovnato originally posted it.
viewtopic.php?p=1042099#p1042099

Nice one, thanks!

Looking forward to tomorrow to see the W13 in action.

[dans79]

They aren't designing and building a new floor in 5 days. This will be something that has been under development for weeks. Maybe it wasn't ready to bring to Bahrain, or maybe they ran a simpler/earlier spec floor for strategic reasons.

It couldn't have been to long, as it's specifically suppose to help deal with porpoising. And none of the teams knew about that till Barcelona. Thus at most they had ~3 weeks to design, build, and ship it to Bahrain. That would be an exceptional accomplishment if its a completely new floor. I personally think it will be a modified version of what we saw in Bahrain!

[LM10]

They aren't designing and building a new floor in 5 days. This will be something that has been under development for weeks. Maybe it wasn't ready to bring to Bahrain, or maybe they ran a simpler/earlier spec floor for strategic reasons.

It couldn't have been to long, as it's specifically suppose to help deal with porpoising. And none of the teams knew about that till Barcelona. Thus at most they had ~3 weeks to design, build, and ship it to Bahrain. That would be an exceptional accomplishment if its a completely new floor. I personally think it will be a modified version of what we saw in Bahrain!

I also think it’s going to be a modified version. Similar to what other teams brought to Bahrain testing.

[NathanOlder]

How have Mercedes got their car to and from scrutineering without a single pic of the car with a floor on it ? surely there would have been cameras everywhere ??

[Just_a_fan]

I cant see a new floor being shipped in. Not enough time unless it was in progress prior to the test sessions

They could possibly bond in small devices / flicks if they were in the pipeline anyway, even if they didn't get chance to produce a whole new floor as an entire item.

Indeed, it would be a good way to test such a device if they are thinking of incorporating it in to the car in future.

[Just_a_fan]

How have Mercedes got their car to and from scrutineering without a single pic of the car with a floor on it ? surely there would have been cameras everywhere ??

They could go to scrutineering with the existing floor - the scrutineering is more about the safety aspects of the car, not aero addenda. They can bolt a new floor on one of the cars during an FP session. The teams effectively self-scrutineer bodywork and the like and the stewards will then pull in cars at random to check them in detail. This saves the organisation / time taken doing a full check of every part of every car every race.

[cooken]

I agree an entirely new floor is unlikely. There was some discussion on one of the broadcasts (don't recall exactly which) that floors would likely be patchwork for the first part of the season.

However, I would also question the notion that no teams knew porpoising would occur. I find it very hard to believe that nobody suspected or anticipated this. My suspicion is rather that several teams were aware, and went about testing to try and characterize it in relation to their car/setup. If Mercedes is one such team, it is certainly possible that they've had a more developed floor in the pipeline for quite some time, and used simpler versions in testing for correlation purposes. It does seem more likely though, that the wavy floor did not quite perform as expected and they reverted to a simple design for Bahrain, so.....frig I just want to see the floor. Whole day spent refreshing and nada, yeesh.

[dans79]

However, I would also question the notion that no teams knew porpoising would occur. I find it very hard to believe that nobody suspected or anticipated this. My suspicion is rather that several teams were aware, and went about testing to try and characterize it in relation to their car/setup.

I'm sure they all knew it was possible, but none of them have a good of simulating/modeling it in cfd or the tunnel!

[Just_a_fan]

I agree an entirely new floor is unlikely. There was some discussion on one of the broadcasts (don't recall exactly which) that floors would likely be patchwork for the first part of the season.

However, I would also question the notion that no teams knew porpoising would occur. I find it very hard to believe that nobody suspected or anticipated this. My suspicion is rather that several teams were aware, and went about testing to try and characterize it in relation to their car/setup. If Mercedes is one such team, it is certainly possible that they've had a more developed floor in the pipeline for quite some time, and used simpler versions in testing for correlation purposes. It does seem more likely though, that the wavy floor did not quite perform as expected and they reverted to a simple design for Bahrain, so.....frig I just want to see the floor. Whole day spent refreshing and nada, yeesh.

Certainly back in the day the less-well funded teams would have the floor made up of sections that might be changed independently e.g. the rear third with the diffuser formed in it might be a piece that was simply joined to the main part of the floor. I've seen cars from that end of the paddock that had obvious join lines across them for this very reason.

I too think Mercedes came with a simple floor to map its behaviour across ride heights and minor rake changes. As they have less wind tunnel and CFD time they're effectively having to do real-world wind tunnel work a.k.a. on track testing.

If they don't bring anything this race, I'd expect a new floor for the next race.

[Just_a_fan]

Just want to copy this post in to the car thread in case the mods get all "off topic happy" on the race thread and delete it from there. It's a useful reference about the car's design.

Show me in the rules the sips have to be part of the side pod, all they have to be is covered in cf….

Show me in the rules where it says a wing is allowed in this area? Wings, winglets and bargeboards were all banned as part of the new rules. It needs to be banned immediately if the FIA have accidentally left this loophole open.

Your need to watch this video

[holeindalip]

I agree an entirely new floor is unlikely. There was some discussion on one of the broadcasts (don't recall exactly which) that floors would likely be patchwork for the first part of the season.

However, I would also question the notion that no teams knew porpoising would occur. I find it very hard to believe that nobody suspected or anticipated this. My suspicion is rather that several teams were aware, and went about testing to try and characterize it in relation to their car/setup. If Mercedes is one such team, it is certainly possible that they've had a more developed floor in the pipeline for quite some time, and used simpler versions in testing for correlation purposes. It does seem more likely though, that the wavy floor did not quite perform as expected and they reverted to a simple design for Bahrain, so.....frig I just want to see the floor. Whole day spent refreshing and nada, yeesh.

Certainly back in the day the less-well funded teams would have the floor made up of sections that might be changed independently e.g. the rear third with the diffuser formed in it might be a piece that was simply joined to the main part of the floor. I've seen cars from that end of the paddock that had obvious join lines across them for this very reason.

I too think Mercedes came with a simple floor to map its behaviour across ride heights and minor rake changes. As they have less wind tunnel and CFD time they're effectively having to do real-world wind tunnel work a.k.a. on track testing.

If they don't bring anything this race, I'd expect a new floor for the next race.

I’m assuming that all the pitot tubes they have all over the car could pay dividends this season since they have less wind tunnel/cfd time

[Just_a_fan]

I’m assuming that all the pitot tubes they have all over the car could pay dividends this season since they have less wind tunnel/cfd time

Assuming they run them during race weekends. There are so many of them that they must have some effect on performance, even if just from a few kg of drag.

Actually, looking at this:



The kiel probes on the top of the rear wing appear to have been removed. Which I guess suggests that they're test session-only items.