Mercedes W13

[JPower]

The rules are so prescriptive now, it's hard to really draw a definitive line between different aero philosophies. If you moved a few things around on the W13, is it really all that different from the MCL36?

The cars this year a different, but they are a far cry from the different aero concepts of previous years. They are all fundamentally part of the same very prescriptive formula now, and the differences between them are things all teams could adopt either during this season or in future seasons.

The idea that any team is married to a particular aero philosophy is a thing of the past.

Pretty much. Ferrari could change to an Alpine/RB/AT-style downwash fairly easily if they wanted to.

[De Jokke]

https://us.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... n/8512038/

Please let it be the render

[ringo]

The car is fine. They are on the right track. The smaller the body of the car the better it is.
Ferrari is doing the opposite, but they are an exception because those sidepods are basically a big wing profile creating downforce. But I suspect this will come at a cost to drag and transient behavior.
Mercedes are okay. I don't see any dead end path for them, and having that slim car with that engine will still leave them as the fastest in a straight line. With the weight of these cars, theyre all going to be more or less the same in the corners; more weight for a little more downforce with lots of inertia. It's the straight line where the differentiator will be.

[Unc1eM0nty]

As I stated previously, a side pod change really isn’t that difficult to execute for a top team. They pulled it off mid-season in 2018. Only thing they couldn’t do was move the SIPS.

With the 2022 budgets it might not be that easy

[Unc1eM0nty]

It doesn't need to be a B-spec car to change sidepod. Cars are developed in small bits and pieces all of the time.

I think we are drifting away from the original speculation where it was said it would be "heavily revised".

I'm sure we will see refinements not only at the next test but thought the season. All teams will need to spend wisely though, they don't have a bottomless pits anymore, and it's early days as far as understanding their car in concerned.

[AR3-GP]

It doesn't need to be a B-spec car to change sidepod. Cars are developed in small bits and pieces all of the time.

I think we are drifting away from the original speculation where it was said it would be "heavily revised".

I'm sure we will see refinements not only at the next test but thought the season. All teams will need to spend wisely though, they don't have a bottomless pits anymore, and it's early days as far as understanding their car in concerned.

and why can't the Merc be heavily revised?

[f1316]

The car is fine. They are on the right track. The smaller the body of the car the better it is.
Ferrari is doing the opposite, but they are an exception because those sidepods are basically a big wing profile creating downforce. But I suspect this will come at a cost to drag and transient behavior.
Mercedes are okay. I don't see any dead end path for them, and having that slim car with that engine will still leave them as the fastest in a straight line. With the weight of these cars, theyre all going to be more or less the same in the corners; more weight for a little more downforce with lots of inertia. It's the straight line where the differentiator will be.

Actually if anything Mercedes is now the exception in retaining a “smaller is better” sidepod philosophy. Every other car, with the exception of the Williams, is now running larger sidepods than last year and significantly so for Ferrari, Aston Martin, Red Bull and Alfa.

The CFD analysis done on this forum seems to indicate that, as a baseline (I’m not talking about specific cars but the baseline small sidepod vs “dipped”) the small sidepod philosophy is actually higher drag. Is it a coincidence that Mercedes are said to be targeting lower drag with new sidepods fot Bahrain? https://us.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... n/8512038/

[e30ernest]

I doubt any big changes they bring to Bahrain would be in response to anything they've seen from other teams at the moment. It would take more time to analyze, conceptualize and implement large changes so if they do come with large changes, those would have been changes that were in the pipeline long ago. So if the rumored big changes to sidepod design are true, then those would have been planned well before the Barcelona test actually began.

Small bits and bobs added or changed around the car would be more in line as a reaction to the test IMO.

[cirrusflyer]

The Merc mechanical bits are tightly packaged. They have room to grow the bodywork outwards to improve drag quite trivially...

Every significant change to the sidepod shape will require changes to the rest of the entire car as wider sidepods would mean a drastical concept change for Mercedes.
As Mercedes have already chosen their philosophy and built their whole car around it, we’ll quite surely not see a change to such extends. If they even decide to change concept, it will not be before next season until we see it.

They could have already made the change months ago.

As I stated previously, a side pod change really isn’t that difficult to execute for a top team. They pulled it off mid-season in 2018. Only thing they couldn’t do was move the SIPS.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... 30693/amp/

Could they just make SP purly for aerodinamic reasons? Make tunnels to direct air where you like, no obstacles in the SP.

[Just_a_fan]

What's impressed me is that the car is always collecting aero data, even without the big rakes attached. Mercedes have sensors on the floor, under the floor, on the rear wing, probably other places too.

It's like they are using the car as a full size wind tunnel model.

Interested to see what they bring to Bahrain as an update package.

[OO7]

What's impressed me is that the car is always collecting aero data, even without the big rakes attached. Mercedes have sensors on the floor, under the floor, on the rear wing, probably other places too.

It's like they are using the car as a full size wind tunnel model.

Interested to see what they bring to Bahrain as an update package.

Yep, it is quite impressive. They also had sensors in the roll hoop intakes.

[AR3-GP]

What's impressed me is that the car is always collecting aero data, even without the big rakes attached. Mercedes have sensors on the floor, under the floor, on the rear wing, probably other places too.

It's like they are using the car as a full size wind tunnel model.

Interested to see what they bring to Bahrain as an update package.

Yep, it is quite impressive. The also had sensors in the roll hoop intakes.

It's the kind of detail that shows you how well prepared the Merc was for that test. It does suggest they are a bit ahead in terms of preparation and readiness. Contrast this with the Red Bull which has clearly spent more time getting last minute parts on it despite their shakedown the day before Merc.

[Stu]

What's impressed me is that the car is always collecting aero data, even without the big rakes attached. Mercedes have sensors on the floor, under the floor, on the rear wing, probably other places too.

It's like they are using the car as a full size wind tunnel model.

Interested to see what they bring to Bahrain as an update package.

That is something that a lot of them are doing, there are now some very small aero sensors that allow you to monitor surface pressures (and therefore airflow) without adding a great deal of weight or bulk. The big rakes allow them to measure the flow away from the surface (to test for correlation with CFD), the shapes of these have really evolved in the last few years!!

[dren]

What's impressed me is that the car is always collecting aero data, even without the big rakes attached. Mercedes have sensors on the floor, under the floor, on the rear wing, probably other places too.

It's like they are using the car as a full size wind tunnel model.

Interested to see what they bring to Bahrain as an update package.

I really don't find it very impressive or surprising that Mercedes or any other team has an abundance of sensors on the car.

[Just_a_fan]

What's impressed me is that the car is always collecting aero data, even without the big rakes attached. Mercedes have sensors on the floor, under the floor, on the rear wing, probably other places too.

It's like they are using the car as a full size wind tunnel model.

Interested to see what they bring to Bahrain as an update package.

That is something that a lot of them are doing, there are now some very small aero sensors that allow you to monitor surface pressures (and therefore airflow) without adding a great deal of weight or bulk. The big rakes allow them to measure the flow away from the surface (to test for correlation with CFD), the shapes of these have really evolved in the last few years!!

So far most have a few here and there. Mercedes even have them in the diffuser which none of the other teams appear to be doing.