The same as the 7 other teams running cannon exits.
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On the eve of this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, Mercedes showed off their long-awaited upgrades for their troubled 2023 F1 car which includes new sidepods, front suspension and floor.
The same as the 7 other teams running cannon exits.
Mercedes, I think, started these concept change rumors partly by themselves when they talked about something like major changes that are still being made to the car. A complete change of the concept during a season is, I think, also hardly possible. However, I think you have to consider two things here - after the experiences of 2022, it would be negligent of Mercedes not to have an alternative plan, should the concept be inferior to that of Red Bull and Ferrari. And it wouldn't be Mercedes-like either. The other thing is that ideally, if you don't want to lose too much ground, a concept change should be done gradually and smoothly. Some say the Mercedes is somewhere in the middle between Red Bull, Ferrari and the W13 from 2022. I don't want to say that a concept change has already been made, but the 2022 Zeropod concept is no longer it. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been possible to install a Ferrari bathtub, because that requires the top of a side box, no matter how small it is. In 2022, that would have been impossible. So Mercedes has definitely moved a bit closer to Ferrari and also Red Bull. They have done this by keeping large parts of their original concept, but they have definitely taken a first step. A second one doesn't have to happen, but I think that the way is not so far now. And I think that Mercedes already has a plan for the emergency and has made it possible that they could do it. Above all - if they told the truth in 2022 - namely that they can change their side box concept at any time, then it should be no problem twice with the current ones, which are much closer to Red Bull and Ferrari. But these speculations and rumors are pointless at the moment anyway, I think. The first real test hasn't even taken place yet. Without that, you can't really say anything at the moment.And only chassis flex would really be a disaster. Anything else is not meaningful before a real test anyway.SparkyAMG wrote: ↑21 Feb 2023, 20:08Ted Kravitz's comments sound like his usual fodder... E.g. to a layman the car looks somewhat similar to last year's, therefore it must be the same concept.
Multiple sources both within the team and outside of it have long said that the sidepods don't make or break their concept and that the main issues that the W13 had weren't visible and indeed weren't fixible within a season.
I think the most likely scenario is that they've spent considerable resources getting the chassis, floor, suspension and all the integrations sorted following last year's troubles, and they have a bodywork package that's not ready yet because of the above and is planned for early in the season. What's on the car now is there as an interim solution.
No team would have the resource to switch to an entirely different concept after a few races because the first attempt didn't meet expectations. Whatever is in store for the W14 will have been on the drawing boards for a couple months already.
To be fair, Aston Martin had a significant change mid-season last year along similar lines. We were told at the beginning of the season that they knew the launch car was poor and that a heavily revised car had been in the pipeline.
With a B-Spec you also adapt other things accordingly therefore. I have to remind you that some teams last year changed their concept from small sidepods to big ones. And their performance didn't get worse. So "the mess with the airflow theory" does not add up. In fact, large side boxes create a flow field that helps keep the damaging turbulence away from the vehicle, which is otherwise very difficult without the banned bargeboards. On page 35 of this thread you can see CFD simulations of the W13 and W14. Here you can see the much less stagnation at the rear tire, which is, next to the mid-wing vortex, front wing tip-vortex and the outer strake also an effect of the larger sidepods of the W14.carisi2k wrote: ↑21 Feb 2023, 22:32A spec B isn't going to work because putting larger sidepods on this small pod concept will mess with all the aero flow. If they have stuffed up again then 2023 will be a write off for Mercedes as they will have to start fresh with a new design for 2024 which will probably put them behind until 2026.
Certainly, the underbody has the greatest influence, but it's not as if the rest of the car no longer plays any role at all. As before, it's the sum of the parts that makes a car fast, even if the underbody now has an (even) greater share. But of course the rest also contributes to the car's performance, including the sidepods. And teams like Ferrari, Red Bull, Haas or Alfa Romeo would not have looked at the Zeropod concept again. Also, it was obvious in 2022 that teams improved a lot after they changed their sidepods. So I think the sidepod concept does play a role. Finally, sidepods have a great influence on the airflow to the rear of the car and thus also contribute to the performance of the underbody. So I don't buy the story that it hardly plays a role. In 2022, the steps taken by the teams after they changed the sidepods were too big. Even though you can't put everything down to that, of course, and the underbody is certainly the most important thing in terms of performance. But they are definitely a factor that contributes to performance, because one has a great influence on the other.PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 05:49Side pod is not make or break guys.
Any concept changing will be with the front wing and the floor.
Just to re-iterate…