McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[ringo]

either way the hard facts i am slowly concluding is that the Mac is on the back foot. It could be like the MP4-25, the almost car was close but never got to be better consistently then the RB and Ferrari.

The -25 was better than the Ferrari for half the season.

I don't think the exhausts can exit under the car, the floor is not supposed to have any holes. I wonder if they can even simulate exhaust gasses in the wind tunnel? Also could it be beneficial to go back to top exhausts like before 2010, Ferrari definitely had found an aerodynamic advantage in the early 2000s with them.

I guess the floor can be cut back to just over the regulated 650mm from the center line. And you have a legal 50mm left on each side. It is still legal if you cut the reference with a trans. or long. plane you will get a continuous line on the reference plane within the 650mm. I could be wrong though..

This is my second guess on the layout. I figure those metal forms on the edge of the floor are guides that turn the exhaust towards the middle of the diffuser, and at the same time allow a slit opening proximately 30mm wide under the floor, outside of 650mm from the center line.



\

Seems to match with this:

Only that its blowing under in the outer 50mm

[horse]

Only that its blowing under in the outer 50mm

Any feeling for the potential benefits? Are we back to tyre squirt again?

[ringo]

It's hard to say, maybe it's angled toward the diffuser?
I think if it's in the next test maybe it's definitely doing something noticeable.

[Just_a_fan]

If it's blowing over the floor-plate why would they put a fence across the flow direction? Unless it's trying to generate a vortex but to what purpose?

The fence is running inside the rear wheel and extends forwards across the floor-plate. You can see it in the bottom image of ringo's post above.

[Erotamu]

maybe flow double sided, up and under floor.

[McG]

That looks like it's glowing red hot, or is it just a reflection. The bottom pic especially

[scarbs]

I'd be pretty sure that is blows beneath the floor, in the direction of the diffuser. My guess is the slot is for either an inlet to allow flow from above the the floor to pass through the duct, or, to allow cooling when the car is stationery. May be a bit of both.

[Formula None]

If the exhaust does in fact blow under the floor, the slit on the topside might simply be a vent to release heat from the exhaust pipe beneath it.

Or, maybe it acts as an intake to suck in topside air and mix it with an exposed exhaust flow beneath. Sort of like a venturi/vac generator effect.

Still inclined to think its simply exiting on the top through said slit, though.

[...]

[elliotts21]

New here, but I've got an idea that I don't think has been mentioned yet.

What if Mclaren has positioned their exhaust, not to optimize diffuser downforce, but rather to generate more effective downforce directly at the unsprung wheels. Looking at the rear of the car, there are what appear to be very high angle of attack airfoils mounted to the rear hubs? What if the exhaust are positioned to maximize the usefulness of these foils seeing as the engine is a massive airpump (P=nRT/V - I'm thinking the high n and T are the driving factors here, overcoming the high V which is at least partially converted into high P when it hits the foil obstruction anyway)? It is even possible that Mclaren could make the gap from hub-mounted foil to rear wing endplate even smaller, thus increasing the effectiveness of this solution (to be frank I don't know the rules in this area of the car very well).

We've all known for a long time that there are massive advantages to applying downforce directly into the hubs, but what if Mclaren has finally found a way to do this on a large scale using loopholes initially opened by Ferrari when they mounted their first little winglet on the brake ducts a number of years ago? It is a moveable aerodynamic device (i.e. mounted on the unsprung portion of the car), but it has no aerodynamic components (i.e. those wings are clearly there for brake cooling purposes only)!

Am I crazy? As a Mclaren fan, I hope this is what they are doing, and I hope they can get it to work!

Edit: after looking at more pictures (especially the brightened ones of the rear of the car), I'm convinced this is what they intend.

-Look at the proximity of the flip-up on the floor to the leading edge of the hub-mounted foil!
-Look at the angle of attack of the foil, and the fact that the leading edge aftually points up - only useful if the flow is very high energy (otherwise seperation would occur near the leading egde of the foil)!
-It might explain why balance has been elusive as well - downforce coming in with the application of the gas pedal during corner exit.

[Owen.C93]

I think they are simply too small for that to be the best way to utilise the exhaust. No doubt they want to get as much flow to to that area as possible though.

[csponton]

MCLAREN
http://spontoncristiano.wordpress.com/

McLaren should be more happy for the team this late start of the world but not really so. It is a fact that the new MP4-26 is significantly lagging behind Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes in terms of reliability and performance. This weekmay used to continue technical functional tests on the car at the factory and simulate the wind tunnel and computer new solutions to make the car more competitive . This is what we are supposed to do the engineers at the factory in Woking, but there is some 'of despair because there is a growing belief that the F1 was designed by Tim Goss is not only bitter but its wrong conceptually. That something was not right to point it was understood from the first test at Jerez in the different solutions were tested exhaust combined with different speakers, all without logic and bulk. Eventually the problem seems to be the same as the McLaren carries a number of years: the lack of downforce, which means a poor grip on the tires. If this is really the problem the only solution is to involve work on the project. This in any case will take away time and especially useful points to fight for world championship titles. The team has the resources to pull himself up but should be an effort exceeded expectations.


MCLAREN
Valencia 1.13,553 Button 4°
Jerez 1.21,099 Hamilton/Button 7°
Barcellona 1.23,858 Hamilton 9°
TOTALE KM 2.573

[McG]

It must be accurate if spontoncristiano.com said it.

[Giblet]

I have gone and deleted all the posts not about the car. I won't be moving them anymore from the car threads, unless there is some decent value in the words being said. If it's not about the car, and you consider it important, posting in the car threads will only lead to misery.

[tjaeger]

McLaren always got interesting design changes, features or concepts. I am afraid that they might take too long to understand and optimize it before the season starts, or they are sandbagging.

[Lurk]

McLaren are testing a new nosecone "with a heavy bump" (ToileF1).

Any photo?