McLaren MP4-29 Mercedes

[Pup]

First you need to know, how much, in the terms of lap time, are those worth. Then you need to know if it is stable/easy to setup and then you can decide if to copy.

Yes it's unique, but is this something what gives you superb performance like EBD does?

Who knows (outside McLaren), but I'd relate this more to the DD diffusers than the blown ones.

[Pup]

After yesterday’s lack of running, it was satisfying to get 43 laps under MP4-29’s belt during the course of a productive day.

Overnight rain, coupled with the decision to douse the track with sprinklers in order to enable Pirelli to evaluate its 2014-spec wet-weather rubber, meant that the team spent the morning conducting installation checks on a damp track, using both Inter and Full-Wet tyres.

By lunchtime, the track had dried completely, which coincided with the team ramping up the mileage, beginning a steadily lengthening series of runs to monitor power-unit behavior.

While the tone of the day was still exploratory, the team were satisfied with the respectable amount of mileage achieved today, and the solid and predictable platform provided by the MP4-29.

Jenson said: "For our first day of actual running, we were able to get a good understanding of the car, and the way the engine and turbo behaves. It’s tricky, and very different to what we’re used to, but I could feel that these cars will be enjoyable to drive.

"Of course, it’s still early days, and there’s a lot of work ahead of us. We need to work on both braking and traction; but that excites me, because there’s a lot of potential to adjust those parameters. The new braking system is very complicated, and getting it right will be tough.

"But these are all things we can work on: there’s nothing about the car that unsettles me, and there’s plenty of scope to explore the set-up. It will just take time.

"Our main aim this winter was to field a reliable car that would give us a good baseline. These cars will develop so much over the next few months, so it’s essential to have a solid base to build upon; and I think we have that good base."

What's next:

In a change to the schedule, Jenson will extend his running into tomorrow morning, passing driving duties on to Kevin at the most convenient break in the programme.

Tomorrow’s session will once again be about conducting initial evaluations into the behaviour and reliability of the MP4-29 and its power-unit.

"Solid and predictable" - that's exactly what you want to hear after the first day's running.

(And topping the timesheet doesn't hurt either.)

[f1rules]

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/form ... 16695.html

article about it, helps extract air from the diffuser, just like the beaming, which according to a FI engineer has been a big loss, newey said, that from what was described to him it was not legal, wuhuuu =D> but he wanted to se pictures first, which im sure ferrari, merc and rb are all doing tonight, great job mclaren =D>

[Forza]

Jerez Test 1 - Day 2

[H2H]

I compared now most sidepods, especially the cooling outlets and the one used by McLaren is unique. It is almost drawn out as long as the ones seen on the RB10 but they are mostly over the upper suspension triangle instead of under it. Nobody else seem to have that approach. Possibly it has to do with the 'paddles' on the suspension arms, having them RBR-style would roughly block them much more. Maybe the hot air streaming out of the outlet is also actively used to shape the airflow of the paddles.

The whole paddle or mushroom idea is obviously also the reason why they have the rod bare and not enclosed as before. Overall it does look like the cooling outlet is designed with this new surprising solution in mind which makes it look like an rather old and integrated idea.

[PhillipM]

They are illegal though, as one of their major purposes is to heavily influence the aerodynamics of the car and goes against the spirit of the rules to aid overtaking.

Bugger the 'spirit' of the rules, they follow the wording of the rules, which is all that matters.

[turbof1]

Just in terms of direct and indirect downforce generation, negating drag, is this a better, equal or worse solution then the beam wing of last year?

[beelsebob]

Aside – I'm not sure I can see much controversy coming out of this anyway, unless they need major suspension geometry changes (which I doubt), most teams will be able to integrate this easily, there's no more car to have an influence over after this point, other than the diffuser, and it seems to have a clear, well defined influence on that.

[turbof1]

Aside – I'm not sure I can see much controversy coming out of this anyway, unless they need major suspension geometry changes (which I doubt), most teams will be able to integrate this easily, there's no more car to have an influence over after this point, other than the diffuser, and it seems to have a clear, well defined influence on that.

Unless teams use a a gearbox shroud, they already need a different gearbox for the changed pickup points. That's either picking up a penalty or waiting 5 races.
And that'll probably be the easiest change.

[beelsebob]

Aside – I'm not sure I can see much controversy coming out of this anyway, unless they need major suspension geometry changes (which I doubt), most teams will be able to integrate this easily, there's no more car to have an influence over after this point, other than the diffuser, and it seems to have a clear, well defined influence on that.

Unless teams use a a gearbox shroud, they already need a different gearbox for the changed pickup points. That's either picking up a penalty or waiting 5 races.
And that'll probably be the easiest change.

Except that they don't pay a penalty if they adopt it during testing, and also, I did qualify this with "unless they need to change suspension geometry".

[Avocado]

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/u ... 2014-4.jpg

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/gall ... an/320.jpg
http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/gall ... an/329.jpg
http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/gall ... an/354.jpg
http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/gall ... an/355.jpg
http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/gall ... an/398.jpg

[Pup]

I think the mounting points have to be on the crash structure for this to work. The gearbox ends pretty much just behind the driveshaft.

So, to copy it you've got to at least go through another rear crash test. And I think that structurally, this setup is pretty tricky since the tie rod and lower wishbone are bent. And then there's the question of aero since the McLaren is clearly designed with this air dam in mind. Maybe for the other guys it's as easy as moving the bodywork for the engine cooling up, but I'm going to guess that there's some repackaging involved with that, as much as they've talked about how packed everything is.

So, can they copy it? Sure, but as has been said, not quite so easily.

I'm going to say that Spain is surely the earliest we'd see this on any other car.

[turbof1]

Aside – I'm not sure I can see much controversy coming out of this anyway, unless they need major suspension geometry changes (which I doubt), most teams will be able to integrate this easily, there's no more car to have an influence over after this point, other than the diffuser, and it seems to have a clear, well defined influence on that.

Unless teams use a a gearbox shroud, they already need a different gearbox for the changed pickup points. That's either picking up a penalty or waiting 5 races.
And that'll probably be the easiest change.

Except that they don't pay a penalty if they adopt it during testing, and also, I did qualify this with "unless they need to change suspension geometry".

I think that last part is a no brainer. Look it where the the wishbones connect at the mclaren: the rear crash structure. They'll be moving everything back in order to get it working.

I don't think teams will be able to develop it in time before the first race. There's so much inbetween now and then that has to be done, and they have their own developments for now to worry about. They could pre-emptive place a shroud on the gearbox that handles the pickup points, but that'll add weight and volume.

[Blackout]

You can see the 'mushroom' or 'bell' shaped wishbones profile better here

[henra]

These arms are just two gigantic Gurney flaps that block air and create BOTH an air dam on top of the floor and a low pressure area directly behind to help the diffuser.

Honestly, I'm still puzzled how these things really work or at least are supposed to.

A possible trick I could conceive is that they try to create a Carnot diffuser with this Setup, thereby effectively increasing diffuser volume. With the given Expansion Ratio of the step, you would get quite bad effciency (<0,3) of the Carnot diffuser but you might still get some DF.
Would be intereting to check in CFD if that would actually work.