Mercedes AMG F1 W03

[OppositeLock]

I'll be curious to see whether or not Mercedes finally solve the overheating problem and the need for excess cooling vents. It must be because of how they package the radiator, engine and exhaust within the chassis. It's been a common complaint for years. They should be more concerned with the aerodynamics of the car than how tightly packaged the internals are. I hope they have learned from their mistakes.

[user001]

I'll be curious to see whether or not Mercedes finally solve the overheating problem and the need for excess cooling vents. It must be because of how they package the radiator, engine and exhaust within the chassis. It's been a common complaint for years. They should be more concerned with the aerodynamics of the car than how tightly packaged the internals are. I hope they have learned from their mistakes.

that's something i've also wanted to come up in my last post. i also do not get why they cannot solve their main problems for years no. overheating/cooling problem. mclaren forceindia ... manage to solve the problems regarding cooling why merc not? now for three years? last year maybe the problem was because of the SWB but this year?

if you cannot cope with the heating problem you destroy your whole aerodynamics. it's litterally blown away . this is something which was very the case with W02. and we see the same with coanda on the W03.

one of red bull's secrets was to package in that way, that there are nearly no stakes and "barriers" to disturb the inner airflow. something lotus could adapt, by getting a few red bull mechanics. also williams made huge progress in this area. why is this so difficult?

they seem to have innovative thinkers in their rows (ddrs, "thinking" intelligent adapting single suspension for every wheel) why can't they solve the main problems in the first place?

[Neno]

Lotus learned alot about inner aerodynamic with their FEE exaust. They learned how air work inside of the car, and going at end of car to diffuser. Even R31 was experimental car it was good base on beggining of the season, E20 was his evolution and almost every bigger weakness from R31 was solved on E20.

I think Mercedes doing something similar with their W03 for W04. Running old car chassis without upgrades with new car chassis with upgrades in some races. Doing what make car slower, what faster.

W04 will be probably a good car, not for winning of championship but it wont probably finish 5 races without single point.

[Vasconia]

Team who in last race of the season going to test how tyers are working, and last 5 race is without a single point, dont expect on front of grid in Australia, much less on pole by 0.5 in Melbourne.

I sincerely dont know what to expect. But at least they would be able to understand the tyres, if not, Hamilton is going to suffer sooooooooooooooo much.

[Nando]

So Schumacher is an engineer?!

Schumacher developing cars is mostly a myth. Developing setup and maybe have some preferences for what parts to use but to come into the wind tunnel, shove the aerodynamicist out the way and and telling Ross Brawn what to do....myth.

great developing skills he has with the Mercedes. Which btw proves my point.

[zyphro]

So Schumacher is an engineer?!

Schumacher developing cars is mostly a myth. Developing setup and maybe have some preferences for what parts to use but to come into the wind tunnel, shove the aerodynamicist out the way and and telling Ross Brawn what to do....myth.

great developing skills he has with the Mercedes. Which btw proves my point.

You do realise, today's F1 is far different to that of MSC 1.0? It should be pretty apparent why.

Schumacher undoubtedly had an influence when testing et al was around, now it's all done in the wind tunnel and is all about aerodynamics of the car.

[Nando]

Yea as i said, i´m sure he gave pointers and guided the car but actually developing the car itself with parts etc.
That´s a myth.

It´s actually quite an insult to the engineers and aerodynamicists.

[user001]

Yea as i said, i´m sure he gave pointers and guided the car but actually developing the car itself with parts etc.
That´s a myth.

It´s actually quite an insult to the engineers and aerodynamicists.

and the same myth enticed hamilton to merc.

[kooleracer]

Yea as i said, i´m sure he gave pointers and guided the car but actually developing the car itself with parts etc.
That´s a myth.

It´s actually quite an insult to the engineers and aerodynamicists.

and the same myth enticed hamilton to merc.

When the media use the phrase "the driver can help develop the car" they usually means. The drivers point out what car he likes to drive. Like MSC in the old days wanted a pointy car, that turns in right and had oversteer. Button for instance likes a car the is more stable at back than at the front. The don't develop part on the car or have any influence when it comes to the Aero-package. Developing a car, means giving the input that the engineers need to build a car that suit your needs as a driver. So its no BS, the input of the drivers is really important the make a winning car. Without the drivers you only have numbers and numbers lie al the time, the drivers input and feeling with car are the most important, thats why the car gets upgraded in the season. The engineer looks at the numbers if that correlates then the job is done, but i have many times heard that the numbers are correlating but the car behaves totally diffirent from the drivers perspective. The drivers wants a special feelling from the car, its his job the work with the enigeneers to get as close as possible the his perfect car.

[Vasconia]

Perhaps its a myth but there are huge diferences between drivers, some of them get much more involved in the improvement of the car, by giving much more precise information about what works in the car and what doesnt. Obviously when testing was free and several new pieces could be checked Michaels usually precise and abundant info used to be very useful.

Nowadays the windtunnel and CFD are the keys and the drivers info though being important is not essential as it used to be.

[Nando]

and the same myth enticed hamilton to merc.

Exactly.

Same as the myth that says he´s completely incompetent in setting up his car to how he likes it.
He has a broader operating window then most and can still be quick in a bad car as Alonso and Button said, but it´s very rare you see Hamilton actually struggle or be completely mystified by the lack of pace.

kooleracer summed it up pretty well.

The driver´s goal is to take something abstract and turn it into something concrete for the engineers which in turn gives back something abstract through the car balance and what have you.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Gary Anderson Analysis of latest W03 Updates


Via AutoSport

[techF1LES]

Rare shot of Mercedes' DRD (maybe someone could translate the article?)...

Source: F1 Sokuho



...plus something about DDRS development: