Mercedes W15 Speculation Thread

[AR3-GP]

Toto confirms the W15 will have different suspension to the W14, talks about other changes as well

https://racingnews365.com/wolff-intervi ... t-red-bull

That's an incredibly modest summary of the article's content Luscion...

"The stopwatch never lies, and we will see next year in Bahrain.

"[We will have] a different chassis, different aerodynamics, different characteristics, different suspension and everything that we can change, we [are going to] change.

"So far, the results in the virtual world are positive, but we need to be careful in terms of managing our expectations. We need such a step in order to catch up to fight for a championship, but obviously if you make a radical step, that means lots of new knowledge."

It could be interpreted from that last part that based on simulations, the W15 has made a significant step already, enough to think they will compete for the championship next year.

[dren]

I heard Mercedes even redesigned all of old standardized nuts and bolts on their new car just so they can say it is 100% new.

[Luscion]

Toto confirms the W15 will have different suspension to the W14, talks about other changes as well

https://racingnews365.com/wolff-intervi ... t-red-bull

That's an incredibly modest summary of the article's content Luscion...

yea it really was haha

"The stopwatch never lies, and we will see next year in Bahrain.

"[We will have] a different chassis, different aerodynamics, different characteristics, different suspension and everything that we can change, we [are going to] change.

"So far, the results in the virtual world are positive, but we need to be careful in terms of managing our expectations. We need such a step in order to catch up to fight for a championship, but obviously if you make a radical step, that means lots of new knowledge."

It could be interpreted from that last part that based on simulations, the W15 has made a significant step already, enough to think they will compete for the championship next year.

The wording seems to indicate they've made a big step forward with the W15 to me too which in interesting, Allison did say they set a very ambitious target for next year and was hopeful they've done enough to be competitive but like Toto said still got to manage expectations as others could have also made big steps

[Stu]

One has to hope that they have been using this season’s developments to improve/check where their previous correlation issues were (considering the trials & tribulations of AM this year with updates it does point the finger at the wind tunnel). I think that we all want to see a 3/4/5-horse race for the constructors championship.

[CHT]

One has to hope that they have been using this season’s developments to improve/check where their previous correlation issues were (considering the trials & tribulations of AM this year with updates it does point the finger at the wind tunnel). I think that we all want to see a 3/4/5-horse race for the constructors championship.

I cant recall when was the last time we saw that 3/4/5 horse race. must have been at least 10 years ago.

[OnEcRiTiCaL]

One has to hope that they have been using this season’s developments to improve/check where their previous correlation issues were (considering the trials & tribulations of AM this year with updates it does point the finger at the wind tunnel). I think that we all want to see a 3/4/5-horse race for the constructors championship.

I don't think so it was the wind tunnel because Aston couldn't improve so much at winter time,otherwise we could talking about Mercedes sabotage the AM after beginning of the season. Also both team they have own persons for run the wind tunnel and they would seen if something wrong and FIA also controlling at some leve the wind tunnels. Mostly Mercedes had problem with their simulator,simulation or with the model and those numbers wasn't matching with the wind tunnel simulation. What is strange that at Aston side Cracks also said that they own simulation wasn't match with the wind tunnel data ,but he said the problem was found. Where was the problem that we don't know.

[basti313]

How about the post season test? I heard a rumor, that they used the test to run new parts of the 24 car. This should have been the reason for them covering it quickly after Rus crashed.
Is this even allowed? And are there any pictures of what they had on the car?

[chrisc90]

How about the post season test? I heard a rumor, that they used the test to run new parts of the 24 car. This should have been the reason for them covering it quickly after Rus crashed.
Is this even allowed? And are there any pictures of what they had on the car?

I don’t believe that is allowed, or on filming days.

[organic]

I think on filming days you can't run components that haven't been fitted in a race weekend.

I believe Ferrari's way around this is to fit the component sometime during a weekend for free practice and take it off the car again, then when you use it on a filming day (to gather data) you can say it's not a new component. Maybe this applies Merc at the post-season test

Would be surprised if most teams weren't trialling bits and pieces thinking ahead to 24 by the end of the season

[dren]

Would be surprised if most teams weren't trialling bits and pieces thinking ahead to 24 by the end of the season

I'd expect it. What team doesn't want more data?

[Stu]

How about the post season test? I heard a rumor, that they used the test to run new parts of the 24 car. This should have been the reason for them covering it quickly after Rus crashed.
Is this even allowed? And are there any pictures of what they had on the car?

I don’t believe that is allowed, or on filming days.

You are quite correct there, this is why Mercedes brought both cars to the final race of 2020 without the toe-adjustment device fitted (championships all tied up, but device being banned for the following year and needing to determine how it affected performance).

[organic]

How about the post season test? I heard a rumor, that they used the test to run new parts of the 24 car. This should have been the reason for them covering it quickly after Rus crashed.
Is this even allowed? And are there any pictures of what they had on the car?

I don’t believe that is allowed, or on filming days.

You are quite correct there, this is why Mercedes brought both cars to the final race of 2020 without the toe-adjustment device fitted (championships all tied up, but device being banned for the following year and needing to determine how it affected performance).

But they didn't use the post-season abu dhabi test to run the 2021 spec floor cutouts like everyone else did...

[chrisc90]

Maybe could be the steering box that Russell tested earlier in the year?

[basti313]

Maybe could be the steering box that Russell tested earlier in the year?

In this case they would not have covered the whole car and especially the floor sides.

[KimiRai]

What about the gearbox? Will Mercedes narrow its bulky design? Customer teams would benefit from that too...