Mercedes AMG F1 W03

[elf341]

Bit more detail in the autosport version: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104198

[FoxHound]

@Jav

By running a a steeper rake, the rear rides higher and crucially the diffuser is higher(bigger area for air to exit from under the car). This provides more rear downforce.
But with the flexing nose, Red Bull can maintain a low front wing height, with a higher rear diffuser height.

Win/Win.

Whilst Mercedes are barking up the DeadDDRs tree, They are missing DF which translated into higher tyre usage...AGAIN.
I think it was effectively what saw to Bigois being pushed out. The late adoption of Coanda, and now this statement from Brawn tells me Mercedes chased the wrong development path, we can already see that in the results from the second half of this year.

They had a good idea, but stood by it too long.

[jav]

If running a steeper rake was all it took to increase rear down force and minimize tire degradation, then surely that's an easy adjustment to test. It doesn'ty make sense. They spent significant resources to lower the brake calipers from the axel centerline to an underslung position. That moved the center mass of several pounds down perhaps 3"... increasing rake would move a much more significant mass up.

I don't believe increased rake provided a net benefit at all. It might have in concert with many other factors concieved as a system... but clearly that ship has sailed and their ability to catch it in season is their weakness. Certainly they've conceded their coanda exhaust is likley less effective than their competition which would make sense if they were late coming to it but Lotus appears to have had similar intial failings and have come to grips with it more fully than AMG.

Given the continued lack of results, explanations seem increasingly more akin to excuses.

[aral]

But with the flexing nose, Red Bull can maintain a low front wing height,

DOH! The front wing is fixed to the rigid part of the nose cone, not to the outer covering that is flexing!

[FoxHound]

But with the flexing nose, Red Bull can maintain a low front wing height,

DOH! The front wing is fixed to the rigid part of the nose cone, not to the outer covering that is flexing!

Explain the picture then.....
You can see very clearly the flexing part of the nose cone(outer) has direct correlation to the height of the wing from the ground.
Irrelevant of where it's fixed, the behaviour is following the lack of rigidity in the outer shell.

If you disagree with this, I would love to know why you feel this is the case.

[dren]

The car was built around some ideas that worked, but the potential was limiting. Much like the Lotus of last year.

[FoxHound]

The car was built around some ideas that worked, but the potential was limiting. Much like the Lotus of last year.

Agree. Not only this, but the Coanda exhaust takes months to nail correctly. Excessive consumption is the main culprit, but I just read something very interesting from Lotus themselves.

We are still experimenting with the latest evolution of our Coanda system. This delivers the same downforce as the one we introduces in Korea and used in the Abu Dhabi race, but does not sap as much power from the engine. We trialled this evolution in Abu Dhabi but opted to go for the known quantity of the Korea spec.

"No that we have the young driver test behind us, we are confident that this evolution will assist with around an extra 6bhp for the last two races of the season. We also have a small aero upgrade to the front wing."

Although providing additional downforce, especially in low and medium speed corners, the original Lotus Coanda exhaust was estimated to cost around 12-12bhp.

[aral]

But with the flexing nose, Red Bull can maintain a low front wing height,

DOH! The front wing is fixed to the rigid part of the nose cone, not to the outer covering that is flexing!

Explain the picture then.....
You can see very clearly the flexing part of the nose cone(outer) has direct correlation to the height of the wing from the ground.
Irrelevant of where it's fixed, the behaviour is following the lack of rigidity in the outer shell.

If you disagree with this, I would love to know why you feel this is the case.

Watch the rear floor in relation to the main part of the front wing. There is NO variation in its relationship. That seems to imply that the nose is NOT actually "bending". The shots were taken in the heat, and it is possible that heat distortion from the ground is causing some form of optical anomaly. It also looks as if the pylons have lateral bending evident.

This is actually a Mercedes thread, so I presume that mods will move arguments to another more suitable thread.

Back on Merc, they are now admitting that they spent too much time and effort into their DDRS (front wing system). It looks as if it was a blind alley.

[Jackles-UK]

The car was built around some ideas that worked, but the potential was limiting. Much like the Lotus of last year.

Absolutely spot-on. I think deeming the W03 a write-off just because they haven't managed to keep pace with McLaren, RBR & Ferrari on the development front is unfair.

When the DDRS seemed to offer a performance gain way back in April/May everybody praised it and lauded it as the 2012 'silver bullet' but, later on in the season, the exact same concept that gave them a performance edge was being blamed for the reason they had no performance Now replace 'DDRS' with 'Side-Exit Exhausts' and adjust the year and you're pretty much golden!

[SchuMassa]

Round 19 - USA





The same front wing again

[aleks_ader]

Thursday...

Interesting according to the following pictures the will run similliar programme like Lotus in ABD... Here we have old spec of exhaust old, new wing etc. I expect very busy practice for the drivers (obvious cus new track) and also for mechanics... Merc really push hard for next season...

[elf341]

Wow - reverting to the old spec exhaust? I wonder if they have not managed to compensate for the loss of power with extra downforce.

You can't blame them really, no points in 4 races with the new system. Also, one might point out that Schumacher has been stuck behind Toro Rossos multiple times unable to pass for many laps even in the DRS zones, and each time for points.

[Intego]

According to AMuS they still have to compare their two exhaust solutions:

The team is still trying to learn. Part of this process will take place in Friday practice. Nico Rosberg will start a car without Coanda exhaust, Michael Schumacher in the version with the tail pipes in the sidepods. "We want to collect data and experience to understand the differences better," said team boss Ross Brawn. The general development directive is clear: It walks towards Coanda. (Google translation)

[Joie de vivre]

Low downforce FW and old exhaust won't really help in those fast S corners. No Q3 for them.

[Richard]

Sounds like they are gathering test data for 2013.