McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[forty-two]

Absolutely, I think that is the reason.

I wonder what they ultimately have in mind, or if they're still working on that!

[murtoidf1]

Yeah, it'd be good if someone could compile all the proved signtings of config.

I think we are up to 3.

Straight through.

Non existent

and Pipes bent round.

[ringo]

This might sound crazy, but it could be possible that the curled in exhausts are going into the gearbox. There could be a turbine on the gearbox input shaft that is being spun by the gases.
The outlet for the turbine is probably on top passing through the engine cover hole.

Turbo compounding is neither supercharging nor turbo charging. It qualifies as kinetic energy recovery.
It's a potential loop hole, but I don't know if mclaren are daring enough to do that though.
So yeah, another "dead zone" conspiracy theory.

[NoDivergence]

There simply isn't enough distance from the center of gravity to create such a moment due to distributed drag loads. You'd have to have HUGE drag force that's not even seen on an entire F1 car and next to no drag elsewhere on the car for the moment to even overcome the ability of the tires, notwithstanding the aerodynamic grip aided to them. Even still, you'd simply steer against the moment.

[Tim.Wright]

...Higher sidepods create drag. When you have two parts of the same object that create differing amounts of drag (the higher and lower parts of the sidepod) you get a twisting force going on. In a straight line and when things are symmetrical this is probably OK, but I wondered out loud what would happen to the handling in yaw when you get differing amounts of drag and turbulent air across the car. [/i]

You're pretty far off the mark there in terms of the magnitude of the issue. Every part on the car will create an aerodynamic moment. Some in the right direction, some in the wrong direction. With the aerodynamic CoP behind the CG, you will always have a stabilising moment in response to a yaw angle.

Complete non issue if you ask me.

Tim

[zgred]

[Gui59]

Ok I might be wrong for the exaust but there is something for sure there, I tried to highlight what might be an exit for the exhausts :

[bar555]

Yeah, forgot about that
Well,they shaped it in a quite unique way, very different to other cars.

It is still very similar to the one featured by MP4/25 (late season)

[Derek]

What is the thing inside the outlet?

It looks like two exhaust pipes one on top of the other could they be
blowing straight on to the beam wing ??

[segedunum]

Still thinking out loud on the subject of those sidepods, and probably for my own benefit..... There's really two things you want to do with the air going towards the back of the car:

1. Get as large a volume of clear air to the back and to the diffuser as you can. That's why you see lots of extreme packaging solutions, new gearboxes and pull-rod suspensions these days.

2. Accelerate that air as best you can over your bodywork surfaces before reaching the rear of the car to ceate more downforce when it reaches there.

Now, with McLaren's sidepod arrangement they've obviously thought a lot about 1. They've made deep cuts into their sidpods to get a larger volume of air to the rear of the car. However, I can't see where they've thought about 2 - accelerating and energising that air as best they can. They've just got two straight channels as far as I can see without doing anything else.

On other cars with their sidepods and bodywork you see intricate curves and deep undercuts to try and create pressure points and accelerate most of that air as best they can before it reaches the rear of the car. Because of what McLaren have done they obviously can't curve the outer parts of their sidpods and create undercuts as other teams have done because they don't have the space.

It might well all work fine as long as they're doing something major with that volume of air once it reaches the back of the car, but they're asking a lot of whatever it is they're doing there.

[doopie2you]

What is the thing inside the outlet?

It looks like two exhaust pipes one on top of the other could they be
blowing straight on to the beam wing ??

Well sorry, but i don't think it is an exhaust...

[murtoidf1]

What is the thing inside the outlet?

It looks like two exhaust pipes one on top of the other could they be
blowing straight on to the beam wing ??

Well sorry, but i don't think it is an exhaust...

i agree, its mad of carbon.

however ive noticed it changes depending on the type of exhaust config..

[Derek]

Maybe there not but I think it's worth some discussion on
the pros and cons of blowing on the beam wing

[myurr]

Still thinking out loud on the subject of those sidepods, and probably for my own benefit..... There's really two things you want to do with the air going towards the back of the car:

1. Get as large a volume of clear air to the back and to the diffuser as you can. That's why you see lots of extreme packaging solutions, new gearboxes and pull-rod suspensions these days.

2. Accelerate that air as best you can over your bodywork surfaces before reaching the rear of the car to ceate more downforce when it reaches there.

Now, with McLaren's sidepod arrangement they've obviously thought a lot about 1. They've made deep cuts into their sidpods to get a larger volume of air to the rear of the car. However, I can't see where they've thought about 2 - accelerating and energising that air as best they can. They've just got two straight channels as far as I can see without doing anything else.

On other cars with their sidepods and bodywork you see intricate curves and deep undercuts to try and create pressure points and accelerate most of that air as best they can before it reaches the rear of the car. Because of what McLaren have done they obviously can't curve the outer parts of their sidpods and create undercuts as other teams have done because they don't have the space.

It might well all work fine as long as they're doing something major with that volume of air once it reaches the back of the car, but they're asking a lot of whatever it is they're doing there.

I don't think accelerating the air over the top surface of the car is what they want to do - my understanding is that this would reduce the pressure and lessen the downforce generated by the floor (the pressure difference between the two would be reduced).

The acceleration of the airflow in other cars is a by product of having to move the air around the car, not a desired effect.

[Owen.C93]

I wouldn't have thought you would want exhaust flow going to the beam wing, otherwise you start creating low pressure over the diffuser. Yeah it will help, but I would think that blowing it over the diffuser would work much better.