Mercedes GP W02

[volarchico]

...
To be honest, I'm just desperate to see any team whatsoever, no matter how desperate they look, step up to the plate to make sure Red Bull isn't ten country miles down the road.

I agree! The first time I read your post, I was shocked that you were saying something negative about Red Bull. Then I realized you weren't.

Maybe by the end of this afternoon Mercedes will put in a simulated quali lap and show Red Bull how it's done. Or maybe tomorrow when they get some updates. Or the next day when they get some more...

[Raptor22]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89815

Mercedes GP has elected to take a step-by-step approach to delivering its Melbourne Grand Prix upgrade package at this week's Barcelona test.

With the new W02 featuring a revised exhaust layout and other bodywork tweaks during Wednesday's running, the team has confirmed that further updates are scheduled for the next three days.

Although the team has not confirmed exactly what these updates will be, they are believed to include revised sidepods, front wing and perhaps further tweaks to the exhaust configuration. The team is testing from today until Saturday.

gladto see autosport finally posted it. We'll only see the whole package on Saturday then. Well at least it keeps the interest flowing like a good trilogy

[Carlo's]

[dren]

Looks like the exhaust is where we were thinking along the sidepods further up. They installed the sidepod strakes and cut notches in the barge boards to allow for flow in this area to join with the exhaust. I'm expecting some undercut here tomorrow.

[NewtonMeter]

I was just thinking that with the exhausts were they currently are, it might not be necessary to have hugely undercut sidepods.

I mean, what is the reason you want an undercut on a sidepod? To have better flow to the floor. And a fat sidepod gets in the way of this. So instead of having a huge undercut to restore the flow, they substitute the flow of air with flow of exhaust gasses.

I don't know if I'm explaining this properly...

[dren]

I was just thinking that with the exhausts were they currently are, it might not be necessary to have hugely undercut sidepods.

I mean, what is the reason you want an undercut on a sidepod? To have better flow to the floor. And a fat sidepod gets in the way of this. So instead of having a huge undercut to restore the flow, they substitute the flow of air with flow of exhaust gasses.

I don't know if I'm explaining this properly...

Makes sense to me. I think we'll see something around that area. I expect most of the cooling fins to disappear too.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

I was just thinking that with the exhausts were they currently are, it might not be necessary to have hugely undercut sidepods.

I mean, what is the reason you want an undercut on a sidepod? To have better flow to the floor. And a fat sidepod gets in the way of this. So instead of having a huge undercut to restore the flow, they substitute the flow of air with flow of exhaust gasses.

I don't know if I'm explaining this properly...

I see where you are getting at with this, I was hoping for something a bit more outlandish. The exhaust positioning on the W02 is something of a Red Bull pastiche.
Adding more undercut, with the additional exhaust gas would have been exceptional. Think somthing along the lines of Torro rosso's double floor concept.

Again we havent seen it all, but I would like to echo Volarchico's sentiments a couple of posts ago by saying I actually agree for a change with segedunum

If it rains the next couple of days as has been predicted, Mercedes will not be getting the best run time with their new mods/updates.

[Raptor22]

rain is only forecast for Saturday but its a lot of rain!
So if they going to get testing thebits they better do it quickly...

[Carlo's]

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Here was what I thought they could be doing....but it appears not .

[Raptor22]

I was just thinking that with the exhausts were they currently are, it might not be necessary to have hugely undercut sidepods.

I mean, what is the reason you want an undercut on a sidepod? To have better flow to the floor. And a fat sidepod gets in the way of this. So instead of having a huge undercut to restore the flow, they substitute the flow of air with flow of exhaust gasses.

I don't know if I'm explaining this properly...

Perfectly. Its highly plausible that you are correct but its not the most efficient way to use exhaust gas since it reaches free stream velocity very quickly. The only additional enery comes from the heat exchange but this transfer is in an unboundedarea so its unlikley to create much acceleration of the air flow over that distance. Last year the RB6 had the exhaust xit very close to the diffuser edge where it could still accelerate the airflow of the diffusor.

What we're seeing is only part of a solution and what they're confirming is if the floor can handle the heat and if their cooling fix is working. Once they;'re happy with that the new bits will get bolted on.
Like JET I'm sort of wonderin if a STR6 type sidepod arrangement is not on the cards with the exhaust exiting further upstream under the sidepod but above the floor and they can then use the boundary of the pod floor and vortex along the floors edge to speed up exhaust flow over the diffusor. If they do this then somebody needs to nominate the STR6 designer for designer of the year. the more I look at that car the more I realise how manytricks the other teams missed.

[bot6]

That rear diff seems quite high compared to the other top teams.

I doubt that the underside of the sidepods will change drastically, as that would invalidate the use of today's testing with all the thermal paint and temp gauges on the rear of the car. Plus, they probably need the space to fit the exhaust pipes.

[marcush.]

what about a huge undercut of the sidepod + a downward periscope exit of the exhaust into the zone close to the floor? Is the current outlet not illegal? as it is positioned to high?

[volarchico]

With the rainbow of temp sensors on the floor, it really brings out all the curves (peaks/valleys).

[bot6]

This floor still seems extremely simple and crude. So do the entry points of the suspension in the rear bodywork... Unless they are really only testing if their new exhaust risks melting the rear suspension, I don't really see the point of testing this with a floor they're not going to race. This worries me...