Mercedes GP W02

[ringo]

Ross Brawn “When the flap comes back, then the flow reattaches. We’re having some situations where the flap comes back and the flow doesn’t attach immediately – it takes a bit of time before the flow reattaches" “In Michael’s case in his qualifying lap there were several corners where the flow was unstable, and it happened in Nico’s case as well"

Oh i wouldn't expect them to make the same mistake twice.

So it's the flow then, either way i think they need to have the actuation in the middle.
Maybe the shark fin like surface on the actuator can help reattachment.

Otherwise, they need new wing profiles. It's not a problem a big manufacturer should be stumbling with.

edit: a quick fix as well is to notch the trailing edge of the centre of the flap and have a shorter chord length in the center cross-section. the flow would be easier to reattach.

[bot6]

They don't need the actuation in the middle, all that does is create more disturbance of the flow on the wing which actually encourages stalling.

But you're right about the notch in the middle. The reason for that notch is precisely to help flow reattach by locally reducing the chord. But they can't just cut a bit out as it would completely change the structure of the wing and the thing would probably snap in half at high speed.

Hopefully, they will bring a notched wing to the next race.

[atanatizante]

1.Could be a pick-up rubber get stuck in the gap between flap and the endplate? Because they were plenty and also flying today with debris ... It wasn`t get jammed in the end because of the different yaw angle, direction and speed of the air flow.
2.Btw. how much space is between these 2 elements? 1-2mm ? ...
3.Or maybe it`s more related to the fact that is the smallest flap on the grid?
4.If anyone could saw that the RB was the single car to use DRS in some fast corner like turn 12. The trick is that they didn`t opened it to the maximum extent ... Could they map DRS to do something like this? And if they could it`s legal?

[marekk]

They don't need the actuation in the middle, all that does is create more disturbance of the flow on the wing which actually encourages stalling.

But you're right about the notch in the middle. The reason for that notch is precisely to help flow reattach by locally reducing the chord. But they can't just cut a bit out as it would completely change the structure of the wing and the thing would probably snap in half at high speed.

Hopefully, they will bring a notched wing to the next race.

Notch on rear wing will help with reattaching of the flow, but notched wing is not as efficient as one without a notch.

RB mentioned it already - those cars are designed and run on the very limit.

Renault is praising new livery, because you only need 2 layers of black paint to cover the carbon, instead of 3 used 2010.
Coulthard said today, he used to have just 0.5 ltr of drink in the car, instead of normally used 1 ltr, because of the weight.
All drivers rush to WC before the start (you remeber Kimi ?).
One of big aero guys has said, if someone from the team comes with new idea worth 0,001s and tis idea seems plausible, they go for it - building models and testing on CFD and in tunnel.
Drivers are talking about overshooting a corner by 5cm.

That's "on the edge" in F1.

My impression with W02 is they simply overshot this design - very quick in wind tunnel, but not delivering, because to windy, to still, to hot, to cold, to humid, to dry ....

[atanatizante]

In FP2, regarding speed trap, Michael was the 21st and Nico the 18st.
They have been working towards a rain setup?

[ringo]

They don't need the actuation in the middle, all that does is create more disturbance of the flow on the wing which actually encourages stalling.

But you're right about the notch in the middle. The reason for that notch is precisely to help flow reattach by locally reducing the chord. But they can't just cut a bit out as it would completely change the structure of the wing and the thing would probably snap in half at high speed.

Hopefully, they will bring a notched wing to the next race.

Notch on rear wing will help with reattaching of the flow, but notched wing is not as efficient as one without a notch.

RB mentioned it already - those cars are designed and run on the very limit.

Renault is praising new livery, because you only need 2 layers of black paint to cover the carbon, instead of 3 used 2010.
Coulthard said today, he used to have just 0.5 ltr of drink in the car, instead of normally used 1 ltr, because of the weight.
All drivers rush to WC before the start (you remeber Kimi ?).
One of big aero guys has said, if someone from the team comes with new idea worth 0,001s and tis idea seems plausible, they go for it - building models and testing on CFD and in tunnel.
Drivers are talking about overshooting a corner by 5cm.

That's "on the edge" in F1.

My impression with W02 is they simply overshot this design - very quick in wind tunnel, but not delivering, because to windy, to still, to hot, to cold, to humid, to dry ....

It's just as efficient. The back middle of an F1 wing has the worst flow. It think most of them have a little separation normally.

And about the adjuster in the middle it doesn't affect the flow and make reattachment worse.
That upper side of the wing is one of the most turbulent areas on the car. A whole lot of flow circulation. It's very insensitive to disturbance compared to the lower side.

Having it in the middle would give the flow something to "grab onto" when the flap comes back down, i would imagine.
Especially with cross winds.

[Leon]

Look at Ferrari, the team which has experience and resources but also has serious problems. Though on tests all looked good.
So, I think, W02 basically not bad compared to them, he needs only a bit attention in details and tweaks.
There is no need to rely on the flexible car, sooner or later FIA will forbid it, and I do not think that the cheater will get off light.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Ferrari have a good race pace, Alonso and Massa was as fast as Button and Hamilton.

Serious problem of Ferrari is only on quali.

Mercedes had no pace at all, no grip, and serious reliability problem. This car is even worse than W01, even the sauber is faster.

[beelsebob]

Ferrari have a good race pace, Alonso and Massa was as fast as Button and Hamilton.

Not really – the only time Alonso was faster than either McLaren was while Hamilton was on his last set of tyres, and he dropped a full 20 seconds on button during that time.

[Joie de vivre]

At least he was ahead of Rosberg.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.

Wrong!

Schumi always starts better than Nico.

[marcush.]

My gut feeling is Rosberg will be beaten by Schumacher this year but that´s about it.Nico ,will he be able to keep his spirit high?
Schumacher did a decent start but there´s not enough balance in this machine to make the tyres live.
They have no excuses only to blame themselves.What a shame.Norbert was not even interviewed by RTL todays...Ross and Norby will not see the second half the season as members of MGP methinks...

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Ferrari have a good race pace, Alonso and Massa was as fast as Button and Hamilton.

Not really – the only time Alonso was faster than either McLaren was while Hamilton was on his last set of tyres, and he dropped a full 20 seconds on button during that time.

In the first stint both Ferrari was blocked by Button..

[Pierce89]

Ferrari have a good race pace, Alonso and Massa was as fast as Button and Hamilton.

Not really – the only time Alonso was faster than either McLaren was while Hamilton was on his last set of tyres, and he dropped a full 20 seconds on button during that time.

There were many times in the race when the red ... ran down the silver ...

[3one]

Now it seems much worse than last year... During the start of the season 2010 they we're usually at 7th-8th position, now they're at 9th and 12th... Seems like rather than improve from last year they're a step down the ladder...

I did notice during the race that the W02 tends to oversteer out of the corner...

Two major problems that the team faces in my point of view:

1. DRS Fix - The problem is the flow attaching back to the wing when DRS is turned off, its "maybe" having one of the smallest movable wing in the field... Should they increase the size of the movable flap to fix this problem?

2. Tire Management - just after a few laps Shumi was radio'd by his engineer to start saving his tires... Given that he started with fresh options as he didn't get to Q3, just a few laps shows how the w02 to be too hard on the tires...

Now this is just my amateur observation and I'm no expert... All just my point of view...

Now the question is what will Brawn do now to fix the car and catch up? It not only RedBull, Mclaren, and Ferrari that they have to catch in pace, but also Renault and Sauber...

[Joie de vivre]

Is it only me thinking this front wing is crap?