Vodafone McLaren MP4-27 Mercedes

[jordangp]

If only the angle was taken from the other side, so you could get a real goof look at that flo-vis

[Owen.C93]

Yeah that image just shows the plume kinda covers the whole tyre and that's about it.

[Pup]

I said too much front and not enough rear down force.
Remember if you use a front wing that was balancing a 15,000 Newton downforce car, on a 12,000N downforce car, there is definitely going to be too much down-force at the front.

The starting point is the rear. Create as much downforce as possible in the rear, then balance the car with the front, then adjust both together as needed to fit each track's optimum drag/downforce level.

[Pup]

So this does indeed look to me like the 'stagnant area' in front of the rear wheels is actually just baked on flowvis outlining the exhaust plume. And a fairly wide plume it is.

[MIKEY_!]

Why would you do that? I think recent years show pretty well that you can better have a lot of downforce than very little drag

More DF is good yes, but not an unbalanced car. This helps to solve the unbalanced downforce acting on the cars now that they have lost the EBD. Of course teams have found other adjustments as well. The drag issue is not so important since the FW isn't a very high drag unit. Getting extra air to the rear is more important.

Until you are too close to the ground and the wing will stall...

Well only Ferrari managed to stuff that up last year.

[PlatinumZealot]

So this does indeed look to me like the 'stagnant area' in front of the rear wheels is actually just baked on flowvis outlining the exhaust plume. And a fairly wide plume it is.

Maybe, it is easy to assume but it could still only be the stagnant area in front of the rear wheels. I might wait till mclaren put temperature sensitive stickers there first - though they might not want to due to getting reprimanded for breaking the spirit of the rules.

[Hail22]

I think due to the new rules etc allowing many chassis instead of just one homologated chassis will mean teams will have a Chassis based on certain races...

Its a shame but it sounds like a 8 Horse Race (top 4 teams).

Looking forward to my arrival in Melbourne i will pull out my EOS camera and attempt to take some spy photos for the forums!

[OO7]

So this does indeed look to me like the 'stagnant area' in front of the rear wheels is actually just baked on flowvis outlining the exhaust plume. And a fairly wide plume it is.

Maybe, it is easy to assume but it could still only be the stagnant area in front of the rear wheels. I might wait till mclaren put temperature sensitive stickers there first - though they might not want to due to getting reprimanded for breaking the spirit of the rules.

http://f1zoom.co.cc/?year=2012&race=jer ... =89&full=1

[Shrieker]

Good catch Blaze !!

[tok-tokkie]

Another image not seen yet of the flo-vis '27


image via Khan_F1

How is the flo-viz applied?
Was it painted all over the floor or was it painted in an arc from below the exhaust to the front of the rear wheel (in other words was it applied where the action starts so they could see how it spreads out from there)?
Really what I want to understand is why is there a concentration of flo-viz from the exhaust outlet to in front of the rear wheel?

[OO7]

Good catch Blaze !!

Cheers
The following image gives a slightly better indication of the temperature sticker, in relation to the exhaust outlet and left rear wheel: http://f1zoom.co.cc/?year=2012&race=jer ... =51&full=1

[Shrieker]

Judging from the position of the temp. sticker in that pick, could McLaren be blowing the exhaust gases there or thereabouts ? With an exhaust pipe aimed 10 degrees upwards ?? That's some achievement if the assumption is correct...

[beelsebob]

Judging from the position of the temp. sticker in that pick, could McLaren be blowing the exhaust gases there or thereabouts ? With an exhaust pipe aimed 10 degrees upwards ?? That's some achievement if the assumption is correct...

I honestly don't see why people are seeing this as an achievement. Look at the rear wing – the aerofoil is about the same chord (in total) as the one placed just after the exhaust, and manages to direct the flow of air over it around a much steeper angle. Admittedly it has a slot in it to stop it stalling, but you know... a 30° or more bend in that chord is entirely possible.

[Shrieker]

I heard some people here saying the exhaust plumes travel as fast as 600-700 km/h at the pipe's exit. Surely, bending that flow some 30-35 degrees in such a short distance would be a bit more complicated ?

[ringo]

I don't know how a conclusion was reached about the exhaust just because the flow vis seems greener in one area.
The same shade of green is on the front push rod and on the gearbox.

From observation, no conclusion can be drawn from this image.

CFD is the best attempt to get an idea of what the exhaust cut outs are meant to do.