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.
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AMuS reports that apparently the ground clearance of the RB19 is at least 10 millimetres below everyone else. Toto Wolff says their floor would break if they would do the same. Also Mercedes engineers claim to have noticed that the AMR23 drives at a lower ride height too, and despite that, gets over the bumps well. It is also strong on corner exit. The comparison with Aston Martin is interesting for Mercedes because they supply Aston Martin with the engine, gearbox and rear suspension.
Can someone explain what else affects the ride height and how is Mercedes is limited while using the same suspension as amr23?
Could it be just setup of the rear suspension or more the floor shape and front suspension
Posted in another thread elsewhere but Merc (according AMuS) assume it has to do with the front suspension for both RBR and AMR since the rear comes from them
The dicsussion about aero for cars in yaw, in general, has been moved to the general aero thread, I am sure all 10 cars turn from time to time: viewtopic.php?p=1116972#p1116972
Please stick to W14 specifics in this thread.
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Mercedes - Side pods wing pulls air down, but slim body brings in clean in-wash The large side pod wing, also makes a large vortex that is not possible with other designs. Result - Strong performance in yaw and lower speed turns.
It's only a hypothesis of course.
What would be the interaction in yaw between mid wing vortex and rear tyre squirt? What would happen if it has bad behaviour in yaw? I heard this weekend Mercedes has a certain limit of yaw angles in their wind tunnel, 33% less than Red Bull, could this behaviour in yaw angles above their limit produce correlation issues?
I would say it is not an issue for normal race conditions keeping in mind that the W13 did well at races like Hungary and Circuit of Americas.
The only other question is windy races. The last windy race was Zandvoort? The car didn't do to bad there.
Very deep scoop, making it a shallower angle than possible, but huge camber makes it up a bit. Like Ferrari, DRS flap closed is not at the maximum angle. Overall, wing seems to be a Ferrari-like attempt at decently efficient downforce for the race, while making a tiny sacrifice in lower drag difference between DRS close-open states. They also did a much better job with endplate transition design, getting rid of those chubby corners on high-downforce wing from last year. Should result in a very decent drag reduction overall.
This is a very positive sign for Mercedes, showing they don't expect the need to rely on wing downforce to make-up the deficit of floor downforce compared to opponents.
Last edited by Vanja #66 on 02 Mar 2023, 10:23, edited 2 times in total.
Like Ferrari it seems very low df for Bahrain, if they actually plan to use it here. From their tyre deg it seems not possible for this to be run but let's see
It's not low-df at all, it's a medium-high downforce design. Pretty much like the wing Ferrari used in 2022 and I'd say slightly less angle than RB had last year also. Encouraging sign for Mercedes fans.
Last edited by Vanja #66 on 02 Mar 2023, 10:24, edited 1 time in total.
Would they have been running a higher downforce rear wing at the test to instigate max porpoising conditions?
From the footage I've seen the car appears to have been in a bracket of cars that dealt with it better.
Seems to me if there was porpoising with this wing there would've been a major rethink.
That there wasn't is a good sign as you say.
Night and day difference.
But also if you compare the onboard footage, the W14 seems to turn in better but does have some oversteer.
Not knowing the fuel loads, and given the new spec tyres we have this year direct comparison is tough.
But from the naked eye, the W14 was not understeering into corners and oversteering out which is a nightmare situation. As portrayed here on Day 2 last year.
But also if you compare the onboard footage, the W14 seems to turn in better but does have some oversteer.
Not knowing the fuel loads, and given the new spec tyres we have this year direct comparison is tough.
But from the naked eye, the W14 was not understeering into corners and oversteering out which is a nightmare situation. As portrayed here on Day 2 last year.
Is it not better to have a slightly oversteering car than an understeering one? Granted it was only testing and that there were no real attempts to optimise the setup but isn't an understeering car generally undesirable?
