Merc posted comparison photos (well, renders) themselves on Twitter. Good guy Merc.
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.andrewf1 wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 23:07Merc 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
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.mantikos wrote: ↑23 Feb 2023, 00:27Fantastic 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.andrewf1 wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 23:07Merc 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
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.PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 21:54And 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?
Vanja #66 wrote: ↑16 Feb 2023, 20:39An 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
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.mantikos wrote: ↑23 Feb 2023, 00:27Fantastic 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.andrewf1 wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 23:07Merc 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
The intakes - rather reminiscent of cars of the 1997s....Venturiation wrote: ↑23 Feb 2023, 01:15Vanja #66 wrote: ↑16 Feb 2023, 20:39An 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
Agree - narrower at the widest point; volumetrically very similar.continuum16 wrote: ↑23 Feb 2023, 00:42IMO 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.mantikos wrote: ↑23 Feb 2023, 00:27Fantastic 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.andrewf1 wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 23:07Merc 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
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.
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 W14mzso wrote: ↑23 Feb 2023, 00:55Last 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.PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 21:54And 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?