Mercedes W14

[organic]

W14 front wing seems to be loaded more inboard than the w13 from the renders

[Henk_v]

Their upper bodywork with the shoulders and cannon exit would make far less sense with the zeropod solution. I prepare for some proper sidepods.

I don't think they'd go through all the effort to pack the internals only to go for a more conventional sidepod design. I think they'd actually go more shrink-wrapped if they were to make further changes to the sidepod.

Who says the presented car has any internals?

[f1rules]

definitly they make more of a "channel" formed by the hotair outlets from behind the halo, then the studie pics suggest

[Cs98]

Their upper bodywork with the shoulders and cannon exit would make far less sense with the zeropod solution. I prepare for some proper sidepods.

I don't think they'd go through all the effort to pack the internals only to go for a more conventional sidepod design. I think they'd actually go more shrink-wrapped if they were to make further changes to the sidepod.

Who says the presented car has any internals?

We'll see soon enough. Cause I guarantee you the car doing the shakedown will have internals. So a decoy now and the real thing two hours later? No real point IMO.

[sbrillo]

I will say it: Maybe, they will change side pods in Bahrain? Like they did last year? Sidepod's shape looks too simple to me.

Concurred.

Feels unlikely. What is there to gain? The other teams have pursued a totally different concept and Merc only lose time and money by trying to deceive the competition again. And for what? One week? No.

Well, last year they brought in Barcelona the new car with different floor and side pods. Maybe was an early development of the car.
If we consider how many things they brought for all 2022 season I can say that brought "2 cars" don't cost them nothing. Maybe this year they continue with the trend and brought the early development cars. For what we know, I could be. We have to wait to see if this is the real w14.

[organic]

Closeup of the new endplate slot. The wing elements twist in such a way that they form a discontinuous endplate when viewed from most angles but from the side view,the slot is invisible, making it legal I believe:



Ingenious.. surely this will make the airflow dirtier than the previous endplate slot?

[Henk_v]

Concurred.

Those mid wings are exactly what they ran in '22. I'll eat my shoe if that is the '23 solution. I agree we are looking at a decoy car here.

Their upper bodywork with the shoulders and cannon exit would make far less sense with the zeropod solution. I prepare for some proper sidepods.

Interesting rear wing. The lower element seems to extend below/behind the DRS flap. Maybe they found gain in less open area between the element when DRS is opened as they would stall the lower element more?

I'd disagree with the notion that the canon makes less sense with the zero pods. Even last year they had a large cannon exit, just with a less defined section leading up to it.

Also I don't understand what you are trying to say about the rear wing. It is a fairly normal wing by F1 standards and the lower element will always extend behind the leading edge of the DRS flap

The bodywork and shoulders were much, much lower and shrinkwrapped. Look at the comparison pics in the thread.

About the rear wing, I guess you are right. My bad.

[Cs98]

Concurred.

Feels unlikely. What is there to gain? The other teams have pursued a totally different concept and Merc only lose time and money by trying to deceive the competition again. And for what? One week? No.

Well, last year they brought in Barcelona the new car with different floor and side pods. Maybe was an early development of the car.
If we consider how many things they brought for all 2022 season I can say that brought "2 cars" don't cost them nothing. Maybe this year they continue with the trend and brought the early development cars. For what we know, I could be. We have to wait to see if this is the real w14.

No, they brought that in Bahrain. The other sidepod solution they still tested in Barcelona, it was mostly assumed to simply be hiding the real solution.

Now everyone knows Merc has a zeropod, and no one is trying to pursue that path. So Merc have nothing to gain by presenting a fake zeropod if they plan on running a different solution. Maybe they will develop another pod later in the season, but if they aren't going to run this in the test it was a waste of money building it.

[GTO99]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fo_667WXgAA ... ame=medium

Looks like longer wheelbase.


Wouldn't the high/wide tubular body work extending by the halo create higher center of gravity?

[F1Krof]

Scarbs thinks this is not the real car.

[discojesus100]

Not sure they will bring something too different to the test, the launch car last year was notably simple and I think it was about turning up late with the zero-pod concept that was unseen before 2022, could be wrong tho they ran 2 versions in different test weeks before too.

[Cs98]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fo_667WXgAA ... ame=medium

Looks like longer wheelbase.
Wouldn't the high/wide "bathtub" body work extending by the halo create higher center of gravity?

Camera angle.

[mkay]

Scarbs thinks this is not the real car.

https://twitter.com/ScarbsTech/status/1 ... 57056?s=20

The car in the render is clearly different from the car they showed at the event. Now, whether the event car is the real car, we'll only know in Bahrain. They may still decide to do the shakedown with the event car.

[Cs98]

Scarbs thinks this is not the real car.

https://twitter.com/ScarbsTech/status/1 ... 57056?s=20

The car in the render is clearly different from the car they showed at the event. Now, whether the event car is the real car, we'll only know in Bahrain. They may still decide to do the shakedown with the event car.

Actually it's pretty identical besides the cooling louvres.

[Venturiation]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fo__NMZWcAE ... ame=medium

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fo__NroXgAA ... ame=medium

From Albert Fabrega on Twitter

Sidepods are now even smaller