Mercedes W14

[andrewf1]

Merc posted comparison photos (well, renders) themselves on Twitter. Good guy Merc.

[mantikos]

Merc posted comparison photos (well, renders) themselves on Twitter. Good guy Merc.

https://i.imgur.com/4KX4aSA.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/zVCteie.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/CK0bVQp/merc.gif
https://i.ibb.co/b74mMFx/merc2.gif

Fantastic post, narrower sidepods, reshaped mid-wing, and massive change in suspension is clearly visible. If last year was 0 pod, this year's narrower pods are negative pods I guess. Definitely smoother shape. The floor inlet is much much higher too.

[maxxer]

Rear wing also wider , who in the office missed those allowed dimensions last year

[Venturiation]

from giorgio piola
The W14's zeropod starts 100mm further from the front tires to improve airflow and cooling.

There have been efforts to reduce weight and its distribution. The gearbox, front and rear suspension are new, increasing mechanical grip.

[continuum16]

Merc posted comparison photos (well, renders) themselves on Twitter. Good guy Merc.

https://i.imgur.com/4KX4aSA.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/zVCteie.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/CK0bVQp/merc.gif
https://i.ibb.co/b74mMFx/merc2.gif

Fantastic post, narrower sidepods, reshaped mid-wing, and massive change in suspension is clearly visible. If last year was 0 pod, this year's narrower pods are negative pods I guess. Definitely smoother shape. The floor inlet is much much higher too.

IMO the sidepods are not that different in volume compared to last year. The W13 sidepods were wider at the front and narrower at the rear, since they were so tapered (especially in planform shape). There is a notable difference in the distance from the inlet to the side of the floor, with there being much more floor space on the W14 at the front, less at the rear.

Basically they "reallocated" volume from the lower front side of the sidepods and redistributed it more uniformly along the length. But after seeing these pictures I would no longer say that the new sidepods are definitively larger than last year, which is what I thought they were up until now. Big up Merc for posting this though.

[mzso]

And the only postulation by Toto is that if it doesn't perform well... They will modify it a little bit. With Toto's words whatever that little bit is, it could be some slight reprofilings... Or something radical. But very likely it will be an even tighter package because They can't change the side pod wings that easily can't they?

Last he said, that he doesn't think that the sidepod is the key performance wise, but they are changing its design anyway. So I think it will be something very different. Eventually.

[Venturiation]

Technical analyses are based on facts, accurate comparisons and hard data. Wishful thinking, subjectivity and zealous approach are not really the right tools for technical discussions.

An effort to establish the relation between W13 and W14 sidepods. Due to massively different came angles and fish-eye distortion (no surprises there!), the only reference for sidepod width is the floor width, since both designs are widest at the floor in order to incorporate mid wing.

https://i.ibb.co/4m3rpBc/comp-13-14.jpg

My verdict - sidepods are slightly wider at the widest point, rear end (the one where the problems were) is far wider and along the Z-axis W14 sidepods are clearly much bigger by design. Undoubtedly empty extra volume, used for external flow conditioning, much like all other teams chose to do last season.

Anyone wanting to dispute this comparison - knock yourself out

in the end they were same zeropods volume just not the same distribution
the inlet is even smaller

[Andi76]

Merc posted comparison photos (well, renders) themselves on Twitter. Good guy Merc.

https://i.imgur.com/4KX4aSA.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/zVCteie.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/CK0bVQp/merc.gif
https://i.ibb.co/b74mMFx/merc2.gif

Fantastic post, narrower sidepods, reshaped mid-wing, and massive change in suspension is clearly visible. If last year was 0 pod, this year's narrower pods are negative pods I guess. Definitely smoother shape. The floor inlet is much much higher too.

The sidepods are wider, not narrower. . It's not for nothing that almost all the media covering technical Formula 1 matters are talking about the Mercedes sidepods being "somewhere between Ferrari and Red Bull." Unanimously it is reported that the sidepods are wider, as motorsport.com says: "At the front of the sidepod, the inlet is now vertical, rather than tapering down and out toward the floor's edge. The flank of the sidepod is also wider than in 2022, as it too takes on more of a conventional shape in order to improve flow to the rear of the car." So it's no coincidence that some even talk about Mercedes abandoning the zeropod concept, like The Race : "Obviously there are some teams that fall somewhere in between these design philosophies, especially Mercedes which has partly abandoned the zero-sidepods concept but has nevertheless maintained its own design identity by placing itself halfway between Ferrari and Red Bull." Which is certainly completely right, because where there's no side pod, or a Zeropod, I can't put Ferrari bathtubes on it, because they need a horizontal top of a side pod. But anyway - the side boxes are wider, and they are not "negative pods". They are without doubt wider than 2022 and they are sidepods. I'm not quite sure about the floor inlet, but Mercedes was already at the limit of the regulations here with the W13, so it's rather unlikely that these are higher.

Technical analyses are based on facts, accurate comparisons and hard data. Wishful thinking, subjectivity and zealous approach are not really the right tools for technical discussions.

An effort to establish the relation between W13 and W14 sidepods. Due to massively different came angles and fish-eye distortion (no surprises there!), the only reference for sidepod width is the floor width, since both designs are widest at the floor in order to incorporate mid wing.

https://i.ibb.co/4m3rpBc/comp-13-14.jpg

My verdict - sidepods are slightly wider at the widest point, rear end (the one where the problems were) is far wider and along the Z-axis W14 sidepods are clearly much bigger by design. Undoubtedly empty extra volume, used for external flow conditioning, much like all other teams chose to do last season.

Anyone wanting to dispute this comparison - knock yourself out

in the end they were same zeropods volume just not the same distribution
the inlet is even smaller

https://i.imgur.com/zVCteie.jpeg

The intakes - rather reminiscent of cars of the 1997s....




Whether "1997-style sidepod inlets" are really smaller, I would actually doubt. Especially since the upper comparison shows otherwise. What there is not the slightest doubt about, however, is that the sidepods are certainly not smaller than in 2022. There is no "bathtub" without sidepods. And such a solution would not have been possible in 2022 at all. Of course, you can now go against the whole rest of the world and stubbornly continue to deny the obvious. But that still does not change the facts and the obvious that the sidepods are larger than 2022 and sidepods are there.

You recently accused the people who said they were no longer Zeropods of doing it so they could say that concept had failed. None of them have ever said anything remotely like that, while you continue to act like Mercedes has even smaller sidepods than 2022 and will continue their Zeropod Concept without compromise. Which only leads to the conclusion that you are doing it so you don't have to admit that the Zeropod concept has had its problems after all and not to have to admit that the people who said Mercedes will increase the size of its sidepods in 2023 were right. For all the discussion, this is a technical forum. No one is interested in saying to anyone else - but I told you last year, so I was right! So I hope we can accept the obvious and just stick to the facts. And those are, at least for 99% of all people who look into it and analyze the cars technically, that Mercedes made the sidepods wider. Not the same size and certainly not smaller. Then they packed, what otherwise would not have been possible, a Ferrari-like bathtub on top of the horizontal top of the sidepods. Despite all that, they're still by far the smallest and retain some of the 2022 car's concept, even if concessions have been made.

[mantikos]

Merc posted comparison photos (well, renders) themselves on Twitter. Good guy Merc.

https://i.imgur.com/4KX4aSA.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/zVCteie.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/CK0bVQp/merc.gif
https://i.ibb.co/b74mMFx/merc2.gif

Fantastic post, narrower sidepods, reshaped mid-wing, and massive change in suspension is clearly visible. If last year was 0 pod, this year's narrower pods are negative pods I guess. Definitely smoother shape. The floor inlet is much much higher too.

IMO the sidepods are not that different in volume compared to last year. The W13 sidepods were wider at the front and narrower at the rear, since they were so tapered (especially in planform shape). There is a notable difference in the distance from the inlet to the side of the floor, with there being much more floor space on the W14 at the front, less at the rear.

Basically they "reallocated" volume from the lower front side of the sidepods and redistributed it more uniformly along the length. But after seeing these pictures I would no longer say that the new sidepods are definitively larger than last year, which is what I thought they were up until now. Big up Merc for posting this though.

Agree - narrower at the widest point; volumetrically very similar.

[organic]

[Blackout]

[Venturiation]

And the only postulation by Toto is that if it doesn't perform well... They will modify it a little bit. With Toto's words whatever that little bit is, it could be some slight reprofilings... Or something radical. But very likely it will be an even tighter package because They can't change the side pod wings that easily can't they?

Last he said, that he doesn't think that the sidepod is the key performance wise, but they are changing its design anyway. So I think it will be something very different. Eventually.

of course you can improve your initial design, the sidepods in W13 were used for 1 year , they have enough data to know where to improve and what to keep for the W14

and they explained multiple times all the problems that people are blaming on sidepods it's just because it's what attracts the eye first, the zeropds and exposed floor does nothing to the problems they had
so if the W13 was fast everyone would say it's only thanks to the zeropods

let's see how the car runs in testing so have a better idea before talking about twisted rumors

[SmallSoldier]

W14 ready to start testing:



Vía: @adamcooperf1

[organic]

Andreas Haupt

[AMG.Tzan]

Mercedes has by far the biggest rear wing on the grid!

Apart from that it’s also by far the oldest one! It’s almost the exact same wing they debuted the W13 with! Hope they’ve got something better coming up because this can’t be the best wing they’ve designed!