Mercedes GP W02

[gridwalker]

This might be a really stupid question, but what does the "W" stand for in the car name? I'd never really thought about it before, but I can't work it out!

[raymondu999]

Wagen/Wagon I believe. They call their cars with a W code too. Eg W221 etc

[Owen.C93]

EDIT: What he said ^^

[mep]

Wagen/Wagon I believe. They call their cars with a W code too. Eg W221 etc

Yes but why the O then?
Normally the inside numbers also have just the W...

Edit: Ahhh the O is a zero.

[Ferraripilot]

W02 needs to find 1.5 seconds to be competitive. I suspect that is very difficult if not impossible. If this were Mclaren they could very possibly figure it out, but MB is in either a stage of reinventing themselves as they are doing something different with W02, or MB needs to reinvent themselves as their current paradigm is just not working. For me, I believe they are in a growing stage of reinvention and are under trial by fire. They will either figure it out or they won't.

MB board members, if they don't know this already, need to understand going in that one doesn't just buy a championship winning F1 team no matter their history. RBR took several years before they went from being known as somewhat of a, "party team" to a serious contender which finally happened 2009. Newey came in 2006 and it took 3-4 years for his ideas to bear fruit.

What we know to date about MB are that the people running it have won many championships and they definitely can be a major competitor, but 2009 was a different sort of year as they had a valid innovation but an otherwise unspectacular car, 2010 was a changing phase as they gained and lost many, 2011 they have gained some fantastic people and are rebuilding. MB being a manufacturer probably has access to all sorts of testing and data which other teams can't dream of. I see good things to come -but if Red Bull taught us anything- not for a couple years and not without spending several truckloads of cash which may mean taking the team from 400 to a championship 600-700 members.


Back to the subject of finding 1-1.5 seconds. How can this be done? Flexing front wing, better exhaust, better diffuser, re-engineer the a-arms to stretch the wheelbase a tiny bit? The sidepods are stuck how they are unless they change the radiator design which might put the sidepods on a serious diet. Doesn't seem like a ton to do but certainly requires an investment which I hope if MB has gone this far with the team, they will see what is required to really allow them to go all the way.

[jav]

1.5 seconds suggests mostly aero work which they've been band-aiding becuase of constant cooling issues- (priority 1 for Bell IMHO). This might also help tire wear if they can both improve downforce and fix flow seperation on the rear wing.

The wheel base change is a much bigger problem as weight distribution has been fixed and bringing the fronts forward will place a greater burden on the already over-taxed rears.

[Ferraripilot]

1.5 seconds suggests mostly aero work which they've been band-aiding becuase of constant cooling issues- (priority 1 for Bell IMHO). This might also help tire wear if they can both improve downforce and fix flow seperation on the rear wing.

The wheel base change is a much bigger problem as weight distribution has been fixed and bringing the fronts forward will place a greater burden on the already over-taxed rears.

More aero will equal less sliding around which means less tire wear. RB is great on tires for that reason. By ditching the double radiators they will lower the CG and hopefully be able to lose some width on the car which in turn will yield more back end stability as the vertical fins and barge boards will be doing a better job. I suppose Brawn didn't have the team do this in the first place as they thought with a shorter car the diffuser would be working much more efficiently, therefore they went with packing everything more towards the center. The wind tunnel testing must have yielded something useful for them to go with this arrangement.

[Robbobnob]

interesting to see their high nose hasn't really produced the benefits that people were speculating.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

I agree cooling must be solved first. The current arrangement is still not good enough in over 5000kms of testing.

Then I would look at the DRS. The system was described by Hamilton as the best so far, but in race trim it looks a liabilty. Failures and "bleeds" are bywords of the Mercedes system.

After this we need to say that rake and front wing endplate flex must be priorities at Mercedes, because the returns for this could be massive. The only other team to experiment with this are the second fastest team, Mclaren. So Mr Bell would look fantastic if after 2 or 3 months in charge he got the flexology(you know what I mean) of the car to a decent standard and lopped an easy 0.5 to 0.8 seconds of the deficit.

After this the team will have to look at adopting the Red Bull exhaust blowing the underside of the floor. Perhaps even the vaunted Renault system Brawn admires( Christ knows how Brackley will make that one work, but with Bob in charge, the right guy is there for the job).

How this will work in highly raked car is anyones guess, but as Red Bull dont have a Renault forward exhaust, and Renault dont have a Red Bull rake, Mercedes could be working on having both, first.


Hell, if it all accumulates to somthing tangible Mercedes wont be in bad shape come Germany. That is a massive if.

[twoshots]

Mclarens KERS is Mercedes-Zytek, not entirely Zytek or Mercedes but a collaboration of both.

Not any more. There is no Zytek in the 2011 system, it's all in-house.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Mclarens KERS is Mercedes-Zytek, not entirely Zytek or Mercedes but a collaboration of both.

Not any more. There is no Zytek in the 2011 system, it's all in-house.

The 2011 unit is a derivative of the 2009 unit. So While perhaps not in name, certainly in concept it is.

[Adamski]

interesting to see their high nose hasn't really produced the benefits that people were speculating.

Yes, it is. But it's clear now, that if you have a high nose, it doesn't mean everything. You need to have the whole car to be worked with high nose.

Anyway, when I first saw in February the MGP W02, my first thought and feeling is, that it's not a championship contender. The whole packaging looks stupid to me. But wait and see.

And now, when I see the on-board videos, it looks like, the car unstable in braking zones, have poor traction from corners (especially compared to Red Bulls), and have more less down-force, then the competitors. The whole feeling in Schumachers laps is, that he is absolutely on the limit with this car, but it is not enough for Q3. But in Rosberg's situation, he feels more confidence in the car, can drive it more consistently. And I'm a massive Schumacher fan...

But I still think, this car has more potential, then its predecessor, so hopefully they can sort out the main problems and in the second half of the year, they will show us, Mercedes can win.

[Ferraripilot]

After this we need to say that rake and front wing endplate flex must be priorities at Mercedes, because the returns for this could be massive. The only other team to experiment with this are the second fastest team, Mclaren. So Mr Bell would look fantastic if after 2 or 3 months in charge he got the flexology(you know what I mean) of the car to a decent standard and lopped an easy 0.5 to 0.8 seconds of the deficit.

I was watching qualifying again and compared to many cars on the field, W02 is running a good amount of rake. Still, not as much as RB7 but W02 is certainly running more than I thought they were. I wonder how much more they can run without really compromising the rear end. It's incredibly apparent how much later Schu is on the accelerator compared to RB.

[Leon]

bring back Rory ))

[thosman]

Hi, from what I've been told by my friend who works at Brackley, the car has big cooling problems, the kers is very very unreliable and the rear wing has somehow been manufactured wrong (although he wouldnt really elaborate too much on that). they do expect some decent, competitive perfomance from the car once they have these issues sorted.

He is currently working flat out in the factory and they have been told to do whatever is needed, regardless of cost!