Mercedes GP W02

[FrukostScones]

[King Six]

This is the most important part of the car.

I'm gonna nick it when they're not looking or when it's parc fermé'd

[horse]

Where's the starter hole? Can anyone lighten the diffuser up a bit?

[Predator]

[dren]

The tea tray looks curved down in the front.

[horse]

Are they starting the engine with magic, then? Has the starter hole crept under the car? Is it still a allowed as a starter hole if it has?

The tea tray looks curved down in the front.

Yeah, I see that. It can't be that low and legal, surely?

[segedunum]

Well, I see they've wheeled out the old-style Brawn front wing again. The 'new' one is very reminiscent of the one from 2009 before they changed that one:

[dren]

NH: We are not dissatisfied with our front wing philosophy. Quite the opposite is the case, frankly. But of course some competitors have other ideas which is the name of the game in Formula 1.

Looks like they have been happy with the front wing.

[Ferraripilot]

Seg, calling those two wings similar is quite avante garde, even for you. Let me know when have a call from any F1 team asking for your assessment.

The new wing appears to be sort of a 2.5 plane wing as the .5 represents a slit at the bottom. The endplate and the joining airway to the endplates from the main wing area is fabulous. Granted that part of it has been around on their previous wings but it remains different to what anyone else is doing. I have to wonder why Schu doesn't like the new wing as he opted for the previous during his hot laps. Perhaps old wing + new rear wing is the hot ticket for him. Maybe it's a setup thing....

[myurr]

Well, I see they've wheeled out the old-style Brawn front wing again. The 'new' one is very reminiscent of the one from 2009 before they changed that one:

segedunum, I know you hate all but one or two teams on the grid, but seriously get a life. Those wings have some similarities, but there are so many differences between the two that you must be tripping to think they're 'very reminiscent'. They have a different number of planes, different lower edge profile (in particular the C shape), seriously different end plates, utterly different main wing shape, and an extra cascade wing.

But other than that, yeah they're utterly identical.

[forty-two]

Looks like they've replaced the gilled outlet with a plain panel as another poster predicted.


Plus, it seems like the exhaust pipe no longer has the metal housing behind it. I guess they must have been happy with the amount of heat landing on the bodywork immediately behind the pipe?

[segedunum]

Ahhhh, I see the venerable Scarbs has made the same observation as well:

http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/03/1 ... -analysis/

Have they still got some bodywork scorching as well?

[ForMuLaOne]

It is not necessary to become personal.


I am quite happy that Mercedes was the fastest Team and even Nico could run the third fastest lap. Now everything is set up for a nice season I am still wondering about the lower front section of the sidepots. There is a panel which maybe ?! could be unmounted...and maybe something nice is underneath

Car looks great now.

[luca]

BARCELONA TEST - DAY THREE

Michael Schumacher completed the majority of the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team’s programme in Barcelona today on the third day of this week’s test, with Nico Rosberg taking over for the final hour of the day.

- The team added further new aerodynamic parts to its upgrade package today
- Michael’s programme focused on aerodynamic evaluations and qualifying exercises
- He set the fastest time of the day, 1:21.268, during a qualifying simulation
- Nico took over the car at 16:00hrs to experience the new developments on a dry track, ahead of expected rain tomorrow
- Michael and Nico completed 89 laps between them, taking the team’s pre-season mileage to 5596 kms

The team plan for both Michael and Nico to drive during the fourth and final day of the test tomorrow.

Michael Schumacher: “We have been developing the car step-by-step this week with new parts arriving each day. So our focus today has been on understanding how to get the best from the car now that it is pretty much in its final configuration for the first time. The car has behaved as we expected and it’s been a very productive day. We completed our programme and I should also be able to get some experience of the expected wet conditions tomorrow.”

Nico Rosberg: “First of all, it’s super that I was able to do some laps today, given the forecast for tomorrow. It was a good few laps, and obviously now that we have most of the developments for the car, it was handling much better and I had a good feeling. So I’m pretty pleased with the situation and would like to thank the whole team for getting everything onto the car that we wanted. We’ve made good progress over the winter.”

Source: http://www.mercedes-gp.com/

[luca]

If Michael does not like the new front wing, does that mean the development is not heading into the right direction (for him)?
It is a pity, they cannot be running a 3 years old front wing on his car during the season!
Hopefully, they will come up with another one.

However, only AMuS has mentioned this. Michael has never said anything specifically about the new front wing.