Mercedes AMG F1 W04

[beelsebob]

Apparently they suspected a gearbox problem, so they inspected it and will be back out shortly.

They inspected it? For 4 hours?
Regardless if they inspected it, it's another half a day lost for them.

"Another"? You realise they did more running than many of the top teams at the last test, right?

[wesley123]

Something (perhaps it's only 14 laps, and no running for ages) makes me wonder if the car has broken.

The car has a gearbox failure, thats why its sidelined.

Lewis comes into the team and it suddenly is a fragile car

Nah but seriously, it is a bit disappointing to see the car break down so many times, it sure has potential to be a good car, but you dont score any points with DNF's

The car seems to have a few updates though, a new rear wing iic and new front and rear brake ducts it seems

[korzeniow]

"Another"? You realise they did more running than many of the top teams at the last test, right?

More running doesn't necessary mean more testing. Yes they run more laps, but because of that they didn't have time to change much on the car

[gray41]

What affect do the strakes at the bottom of the rear wing make, and why is Mercedes one of the only teams not to use them?

[korzeniow]

What affect do the strakes at the bottom of the rear wing make, and why is Mercedes one of the only teams not to use them?

They help to manage the airflow comming out from under the diffusor and also help in procces of sealing the diffusor by exhaust gases.

They simply clear the airflow in that area

[Ferraripilot]

Is W04 still running the DRD this afternoon?

[korzeniow]

No, it is not

[kooleracer]

No, it is not

http://img4.auto-motor-und-sport.de/Nic ... 662377.jpg

Is that a recent picture? He is on medium, according to autosport his last stint was on hards.

[gray41]

I would guess its from the 3 lap run before the 15 lap run, considering the condition of the tyres.

[diego.liv]

Is there a general tyre deg? see Vettel and Alonso. or maybe something else like used tyres ecc

[Ferraripilot]

Costa's reportedly vastly adjustable rear suspension geometry claimed to be in situ should hopefully come in handy as the tire deg actually does appear to be quite high again. The car is quick no doubt though. I would be interested in seeing some shots of the car post a longer run to see the type of wear/graining the tires are suffering from.......

[dren]

Costa's reportedly vastly adjustable rear suspension geometry claimed to be in situ should hopefully come in handy as the tire deg actually does appear to be quite high again. The car is quick no doubt though. I would be interested in seeing some shots of the car post a longer run to see the type of wear/graining the tires are suffering from.......

The Ferrari doesn't look so good. Merc was doing a cool down lap after the initial first run. They did this in Jerez too. Not everyone was doing that today.

[Maelstrom]

Looks like the W04 has good raw speed. If they are fast in Barcelona, they should be fastest everywhere. This is really looking good! The tyre degradation issue is not that worrisome, lets hope they will get on top of it soon.

It only tests we do not know what level of fuel was .. Yet the Lewis said that W04 did not have enough down force in comparison with the mp4-27

He did have the old front wing, I assume Jerez will have less grip than most F1 tracks and a lot of other parts have been changed since then.

Question is... how many of those changes added downforce to the car?

[user001]

and ... we don't know how much influence the passive DRD had on the laptime.... even it was said that it was only used in the morning session.

anyway nice to see merc on top. ... we know all that this means simply nothing (recall all the last years tests)

what counts is saturday evening in melbourne.


only tendency to see something are the longrun sims and even them starting from next week on imho.

[GrizzleBoy]

The removal of the wonky body work at the rear part of the sidepod undercut, as well as the removal of the rear bulk in general would have opened up the rear aero bodywork for more down force generating airflows.

As I hinted at during the Jerez test, the previous bodywork was just "bolted on nonsense" (or something like that).