Mercedes W13

[mkay]

new floor for Mercedes is happening. Not clear if its a new floor (upgrade) or a modification though.
saying that, the floor they ran at the test looked very simple compared to others. I wonder if it was the real floor?

Thanks. It looks like it's only a minor tweak to the existing floor.

[Just_a_fan]

new floor for Mercedes is happening. Not clear if its a new floor (upgrade) or a modification though.
saying that, the floor they ran at the test looked very simple compared to others. I wonder if it was the real floor?

Thanks. It looks like it's only a minor tweak to the existing floor.

"edge ahead of rear tyre" could be a slight change or one of the complex flap devices that others run. No way one can say it's a "minor tweak" based only on that tweet. We need to see some photos before we can even start to use adjectives such as "minor" or "major".

[organic]

new floor for Mercedes is happening. Not clear if its a new floor (upgrade) or a modification though.
saying that, the floor they ran at the test looked very simple compared to others. I wonder if it was the real floor?

Thanks. It looks like it's only a minor tweak to the existing floor.

"edge ahead of rear tyre" could be a slight change or one of the complex flap devices that others run. No way one can say it's a "minor tweak" based only on that tweet. We need to see some photos before we can even start to use adjectives such as "minor" or "major".

Yes that's true - I agree. What I'd add though is that if Mercedes had managed to construct entire new floors for this weekend, I'd imagine they'd list it as a new, updated floor rather than just revision to the floor edge in front of the rear tyre. That suggests they've made modifications to the existing iteration that we saw in the Bahrain test, and maybe won't be a huge departure from the form seen before; that isn't to say anything about the amount of performance it may bring

But yes we should not make statements with conviction at this point on the very small amount of info available

[organic]

Posting about RB etc in the W13 thread is taking this off-topic. Nobody comes here to read about RB not following spirit of rules etc FFS

All of this page should be in team threads

[Shakeman]

Wow, if ever there was a case of not following the spirit of the rules, that document from Red Bull is a great example.

Interesting that Mercedes say the front wing gives 25% of the downforce. That suggests that the floor doesn't give the high % of total downforce that some commentators have been suggesting.

I guess it depends on how that 25% figure is determined, is it just from the front wing acting as a wing or is it its total involvement in creating downforce on the car down stream too?

[AeroDynamic]

Naturally all teams will be bringing a large amount of development in the coming months from development that is ongoing as we speak.

This bit is accurate, the rest is guesswork. I wouldn't say you were absolutely correct in your assumptions. Mercedes are likely bringing an update because they need to fix a problem, and Ferrari might not need to because the car is a good base to work from and they want to understand it well first.

I talked about the first iteration being a red herring. Mercedes confirmed the car was virtually the same internally and it was just the sidepods that changed skin. For me, that was a red herring that proved to be true.

[SiLo]

Naturally all teams will be bringing a large amount of development in the coming months from development that is ongoing as we speak.

This bit is accurate, the rest is guesswork. I wouldn't say you were absolutely correct in your assumptions. Mercedes are likely bringing an update because they need to fix a problem, and Ferrari might not need to because the car is a good base to work from and they want to understand it well first.

I talked about the first iteration being a red herring. Mercedes confirmed the car was virtually the same internally and it was just the sidepods that changed skin. For me, that was a red herring that proved to be true.

It would be a red herring if the first sidepods were some crazy design, but they were just normal run of the mill ones. Nothing about them was a red herring.

[AeroDynamic]

Floor change ahead of Rear Wheel - is it a minor cut out?

[organic]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOIQu8OX0AM ... name=large

Looks like some floor has been cut away in front of the rear tyre. Not a big change from what I see. Probably just one designed solely to reduce porpoising, similar to cutouts in other teams' floors

Perhaps couldn't get that new floor ready in time for race 1

[balalev]

Russell's floor is different

[Stu]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOIQu8OX0AM ... name=large

Looks like some floor has been cut away in front of the rear tyre. Not a big change from what I see. Probably just one designed solely to reduce porpoising, similar to cutouts in other teams' floors

Perhaps couldn't get that new floor ready in time for race 1

There may be a small change to the crease above the tunnel edge (although that could be just how the light is making it look).

People seem to be thinking that there would be a complete overhaul of the floor to combat issues discovered in Bahrain testing. In one week….

[KeiKo403]

Russell's floor is different

https://cdn-1.motorsport.com/images/mgl ... oor-1.webp

*edit* removed post

[Stu]

Russell's floor is different

https://cdn-1.motorsport.com/images/mgl ... oor-1.webp

That is just the camera angle flattening the edge.

[organic]

Russell's floor is different

https://cdn-1.motorsport.com/images/mgl ... oor-1.webp

Are you sure that's not just the less oblique angle making the features less obvious? To me that's almost certainly the same floor just viewed top-down

[JordanFiveOh]

Noble says they are different.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... g/9102941/