Mercedes GP W02

[dren]

What the "magic pedal" is mentioned in the team radio and located on the left under the wheel? They use it during qualifying (it can be easily seen from onboard cams), but I don't know whether they use it in the race.

It was Magic Paddle as in lever. This is a mode changer for the car on the steering wheel. It sets the car to, in the terms of Knight Rider..."Pursuit Mode"

Turbo boost Michael

[Ferraripilot]

Are they allowed to change the engine mapping while on track? If anything, that would make perfect sense as to what the magic paddle might be other than obviously being magic and just plain cool. Of all the technical jargon mixed up into word jumbles on the track, "magic paddle" definitely takes the cake in the cool category.

[keoxiv]

It was Magic Paddle as in lever. This is a mode changer for the car on the steering wheel. It sets the car to, in the terms of Knight Rider..."Pursuit Mode"

Thanks. Sounds interesting. I thought that it was something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wpwK26YZ3w But at the vid he must be using f-duct.

[luca]

According to the Italian press, Mercedes GP will have heavily modified sidepods and front exhausts (similar to Renault's solution) at Barcelona. Rumor has it that the car will be 0.5 seconds faster per lap.

http://www.omnicorse.it/magazine/8750/f ... us-renault

It looks like they are the only ones on the web reporting this, so I have no idea if it is true or not. I just ran into it and wanted to share and see what you think about it.

[bot6]

It would not surprise me. Brawn has said from the start Renault had the "right idea" with their exhaust. And since the KERS was packaged at the front of the sidepods where the FEE needs to go, they need to change the sidepod shape to fit said components somewhere else...

Then again, they might also have gone for the easier to implement high-rake-and-cannon-exhausts Red Bull style combo. But changing the rake to such a large amount would mean a completely different aero behaviour of all parts of the car with the change in angle of attack...

[3one]

It would not surprise me. Brawn has said from the start Renault had the "right idea" with their exhaust. And since the KERS was packaged at the front of the sidepods where the FEE needs to go, they need to change the sidepod shape to fit said components somewhere else...

Then again, they might also have gone for the easier to implement high-rake-and-cannon-exhausts Red Bull style combo. But changing the rake to such a large amount would mean a completely different aero behaviour of all parts of the car with the change in angle of attack...

I did remember during early testing that Ross was eyeing the FEE of renault...
Having a higher rake would definitely give an oversteery car more problems so the FEE is the obvious choice...

The only thing that worries me is the heating problems thats been plagueing them... With the FEE it'll be additional problems... I hope they fix it...

[Pierce89]

It would not surprise me. Brawn has said from the start Renault had the "right idea" with their exhaust. And since the KERS was packaged at the front of the sidepods where the FEE needs to go, they need to change the sidepod shape to fit said components somewhere else...

Then again, they might also have gone for the easier to implement high-rake-and-cannon-exhausts Red Bull style combo. But changing the rake to such a large amount would mean a completely different aero behaviour of all parts of the car with the change in angle of attack...

Actually Brawn said Renault were "looking in the right area" about the exhausts

[Pierce89]

So basically Rosberg had the perfect race, and only Lewis suffered?

C'mon. Rosberg had his time loses in race for reasons of tyre wear and people ahead of him on different strategies. Further to that, Rosberg spent more time behind Button than Hamilton as one would expect.

At the end of the day, 12 seconds is what split them over their worst pitstops.
That is sizeable, but not day and night performance differentiator of 0.5 seconds you seem to be concluding on the W02 and MP4-26.

By rights and over 1 lap the Merc is faster, as Qualifying backs up. Only tyre wear is hampering it. Cooler races will definately show the Mercedes potential more than hotter races like Turkey.

I think it's kinda cool how you alway stick up for MGP and always interpret events around the team as more positive than anyone else here. I'm not being sarcastic. I honestly think it's cool how you always support your team.

[Adamski]

And what do you think about the so called flexing wing?
Look at the end of the long straight! It looks like it moved down to the ground.
Is it possible, that these changes caused by suspension deformation, because of the higher downforce?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M95JQrPSM9U
(Sorry for the bad resolution)

[marcush.]

the race pace thing is caused by front and rear tyres not performing in a ways to keep a constant balance.
they managed to keep the tyres in the window for qualy on low fuel with Rosberg (but not with Schumacher) and with full tank the balance tipped over and the rears gave up on them it seems or they needed to be less agressive to counter this tendency.It seems to be less pronounced with reducing fuel loads .
As this was not the case in china ...there is a possibility that they just did not find the right compromise for their racesetup...or it is track specific behaviour of the car causing them trouble.
anyways the speed was clearly good enough of both to bag good points 5 and 7 would have been realistic .So they arrived in that 2nd group with Mclaren ,Ferrari and Lotus .form on the day decides now if it´s a podium or just p8mor worse.
does this car have the potential to make a bigger step to the front? with their cooling system reworked they should be able to run the car with better l/D ratios and that could be the key to keep in the battle for 2nd.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

It's seems that this car will have front exhaust at Barcelona

http://www.f1zone.net/site/mercedes-to- ... port/6939/

[amouzouris]

couple of questions:
1.Can it be that they were able to take the Renault design and make it even better? which leads to the second question
2. since the Red bull style exhaust has proven to be better as RBR McLaren and Ferrari are using it and they are all faster than renault why would merc bother with that design if they haven't found a way to make it better.
3. Have the changed their engine mapping to make it work with the front exhast? both rbr and renault are using the different engine map that uses more fuel and burns more fuel at low revvs into the exhasut to constantly feed the diffuser.
4.they already had cooling problems, won't this worsen their problems as more fuel will be burned making the exhaust hotter and the exhasut will be housed below the sidepods.

[TURU]

1. There's always such possibility.
2. No. Red Bull and McLaren being faster than Renault does NOT prove that their exhaust is better. That would be gross oversimplification.
3. They will have to, if they want to run it successfully.
4. I can't wait to see them run this exhaust (if this rumour is true). It can either prove to be a massive success of even more massive failure. Either way it will be fun.

[amouzouris]

It will be more than fun actually...especially if they can make it work!

[atanatizante]

From a driver`s point of view I think it`s time to take some early conclusion, therefore:

I don't like this year’s F1 too much. Only for one reason: THE TYRES. I like DRS and KERS, they make everything very exciting but my problem is with these tyres that are crap literally. Indeed and for good reason the majority of F1 fans wants to see more action translated in more overtaking maneuvers but what is now it`s a real farce. Some of us (and I hope we are not a few) are not interested in watching which driver is the most gentle with the tyres, because this is not the fundamental idea of F1! Because I think that in F1 it should be all about racing who can put the maximum from the car. We want true racers taking battles wheel to wheel like Senna and Prost did in the 90`s !

Nowadays even if you have the best car out there you can`t defend anymore because that could ruin your tyres and hence lose the race. A single silly mistake like Schumacher did in Q3 or Hamilton in the start of the race you could lose 1-1,5 sec. per lap and the tyre life is for sure at least 30% reduced. And what is outrageous is the fact that event with the hard tyre you couldn`t defend anymore because a very late or even a misjudged brake could end with a destroyed tyre forcing you to go to the pits in order to change them. For example you should look how simple was Hamilton passing Vettel in China. In this case one driver opted not to defend but in other case someone opts to fight and after the duel his lap time and the other drivers involved falls 1 or 2 sec. per lap. You could easily say that is the problems only with soft tyre that last only 6-10 laps, but in fact what`s the difference between soft and hard? 5 or maybe 7 laps? That means that only a small driver error where he pushes little to much (slide, wheel lock,...) ruins the tyre, and he reduces the 10 laps to four laps or something.

Has anyone noticed that nowadays hardly anyone falls out because of driver error, no more wheel locks, driving on the limit? Also if a car has a tiny miss balance that will directly influence the tyres and the driver will lose time.

And if all engineers are trying to make the best possible material they can it can't be that the Pirelli guys are investing millions in to a tyre that lasts as least as possible, that makes no sense. Miles per gallon contest and who can watch their tyres better contests should be left out to the general public.

If people would like more stops, what the heck make 2-3 stops mandatory and the tyres must last at least 15 laps for the soft ones. It`s a easy solution. You can be sure that the stops will still not happen at the same time, there will still be some strategy. And saying that would be artificial it`s a no brainer because all is artificial nowadays. They even could do some changes this year switching the tyres policy with harder one, e.g. for this race (Turkey) they must have been medium and extra hard tyres with mandatory 3 stops, don`t you think? Or maybe they should kept Bridgestone and add DRS + KERS …

In today’s formula even Senna would suck, because he would blow his tyre in 1/2 a lap. And I don't blame Schumacher for not dominating anymore because it's a totally different contest these days. In his 20+ carrier he rarely practiced to drive gently or take care of the tyres, it was always to drive full throttle as fast as you can. But nowadays he can't go full throttle even on one LAP in Q3. So you can't blame him really. This F1 is not for Schumacher and the bad thing is the fact that he was aware of that way back in 2009 when he signed for Merc, unfortunately for us who thought it would come back to go for the 8th WDC. We have to face the facts that he is here just for 2 reasons: 1. To help the team with his knowledge (both winning and car development skills) and put them into a winning position and 2.Just for pure fun, because you have to realize from a racer point of view that he doesn`t have anything to prove anymore and to anybody. And even if he wants that he doesn`t have the same motivation, reflexes and the right F1 for his style anymore.

Good bay F1 for pure racers and welcome F1 for pure gentle drivers aka. “softnessers”. Nowadays is no more formula Senna or Schumacher, is formula Prost.

I wished people would invest this millions in F1 also for analyzing how racing should really be and not making this fundamental decisions ad-hoc.