Mercedes AMG F1 W05

[thomin]

Sorry but that article on AMuS was posted just after Aus GP, so it meant to failed it prior to Aus GP. There has been no news on whether it has passed/failed another test since.

That's true.

BTW, can a team just do an official crash test whenever they want or are there limits?
Assuming they get the nose done by, say, Wednesday and it's stiff enough according to internal crash tests. Can they then just demand an FIA crash test immediately in order to be able to run it come Saturday?

[NewtonMeter]

Sorry but that article on AMuS was posted just after Aus GP, so it meant to failed it prior to Aus GP. There has been no news on whether it has passed/failed another test since.

That's true.

BTW, can a team just do an official crash test whenever they want or are there limits?
Assuming they get the nose done by, say, Wednesday and it's stiff enough according to internal crash tests. Can they then just demand an FIA crash test immediately in order to be able to run it come Saturday?

I sort of doubt it. I've have the displeasure of working with large companies on a daily basis and things just don't happen fast, dispite the rediculousness of some of the reasons given. Bearing in mind this is the FIA we're talking about, I don't think they're any different.

I'd say at least 2 weeks lead time is neccesary for a new crash test (which, to be sure, they've had since their last, failed, test).

How quickly, if ever, we see the new nose depends on how badly it failed the test, IMO. If it just barely failed, perhaps we'll see it. If it flunked it quite badly, signficantly more work may be needed to get it working. I remember reading somewhere that someone said something about it possibly not being possible (and I win the prize for the vaguest statement ever).

More realistically, I hope we see the new FW driven in anger this weekend.

[thomin]

Sorry but that article on AMuS was posted just after Aus GP, so it meant to failed it prior to Aus GP. There has been no news on whether it has passed/failed another test since.

That's true.

BTW, can a team just do an official crash test whenever they want or are there limits?
Assuming they get the nose done by, say, Wednesday and it's stiff enough according to internal crash tests. Can they then just demand an FIA crash test immediately in order to be able to run it come Saturday?

I sort of doubt it.

That's what I thought as well...if that's the case, is there a limit to how many crash tests you can schedule? Otherwise a team could simply schedule one every other week, just in case they're ready to test a new part, so that they don't have to wait for too long.

I remember reading somewhere that someone said something about it possibly not being possible (and I win the prize for the vaguest statement ever).

That might have been me

More realistically, I hope we see the new FW driven in anger this weekend.

Definitely.

[mantaque]

That's what I thought as well...if that's the case, is there a limit to how many crash tests you can schedule? Otherwise a team could simply schedule one every other week, just in case they're ready to test a new part, so that they don't have to wait for too long.

Remember, that testing this part means involvement of a lot of people. Human resources at factory are limited, materials and technology of which those noses are made of are costly, take huge amount of time. And propably FIA just doesn't send its offcials because team wants that. You have to schedule this action, make part, make a test, read and check how it went.

[Dreameagl]

That's what I thought as well...if that's the case, is there a limit to how many crash tests you can schedule? Otherwise a team could simply schedule one every other week, just in case they're ready to test a new part, so that they don't have to wait for too long.

Remember, that testing this part means involvement of a lot of people. Human resources at factory are limited, materials and technology of which those noses are made of are costly, take huge amount of time. And propably FIA just doesn't send its offcials because team wants that. You have to schedule this action, make part, make a test, read and check how it went.

Aren't the tests performed by an FIA lab or an FIA certified lab? I don't think the FIA sends their inspectors to witness a test at the factory. So if they make the part and send it to wherever it needs to go, they don't need any additional resources. I remember seeing a high speed video of a nose crash test. That combined with the graphs and tables that are generated during a test should give the team enough feedback to know where they need to improve. The how will be the part that is harder to determine.

[mantaque]

Aren't the tests performed by an FIA lab or an FIA certified lab? I don't think the FIA sends their inspectors to witness a test at the factory. So if they make the part and send it to wherever it needs to go, they don't need any additional resources. I remember seeing a high speed video of a nose crash test. That combined with the graphs and tables that are generated during a test should give the team enough feedback to know where they need to improve. The how will be the part that is harder to determine.

Yeah, I think you are right about FIA inspectors and testing data. But still, doing tests at FIA certified lab requires scheduling, far before it will be taken. At factory you would take tests every day as soon as part would be ready.

[gray41]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpTuEgbzrTA

[WillerZ]

Here is what the FIA website says about crash-testing:

…Measurements taken by Cranfield staff and witnessed by FIA observer Gordon Forbes…

So the test results are recorded by staff of the accredited testing lab and observed by an FIA representative. Gordon Forbes still does this job according to his LinkedIn profile.

The team would obviously need to book the lab, and his time; from my experience of (vaguely) similar things you can't put an exact lead-time on it: sometimes you get lucky and both are free the next morning, sometimes you can't find a time when both are available for months. Presumably there are other FIA observers, but there are only two other labs according to that article.

[Thunder]

Sepang Wednesday via AMuS.

The new Wing with the old Nose.

[PlatinumZealot]

Ok so this is what I think Mercedes are doing. We heard from scarbs that they are running an air to water intercooler which matches what we've seen in the sidepods (standard rads). This means that they run extra large radiators but only need 2 with much less plumbing. If you look at these 2 pictures you can see that A the compressor exits towards the right (in gold) whilst the oil tank is packaged to the left and B they run a fuel tank that is asymetrical with more space in the left hand sidepod (to the right of the images we've seen so far).
http://www.omnicorse.it/img/articoli/ev ... rcedes.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IKsQUP5.png
This space is where I believe the intercooler is placed, I have drawn some arrows on this pic to show where the hot air from the compressor comes out (matches well with the engine pic) and then we can see where it goes into the engine air box.
http://i.imgur.com/amQfSSK.jpg
To give a sense of scale this is the Ferrari intercooler setup, seems round about the right size.

Let me know what you think.

Going by your description though, Owen.. the path you described would be more similar to an air to air setup. Because air to water inter-coolers don't look like the ones that are shonw (in the side-pods). They look like deep square boxes.The perfect place to put one would be on top of the engine between the banks (between the V).

And remember too that the water pipe has to come from the front of the engine because of coolant distribution reasons...

[VarioR]

Sepang Wednesday via AMuS.

The new Wing with the old Nose.

Old nose?

They have a new one?

[PlatinumZealot]

I think these new nose rumors are exactly that!
Mercedes composite stuctures simulations can't be that inaccurate to cause so many failed crash tests as reported. Even a caterham passes the crash test in a few tries with that hideous looking proboscis. I just can't imagine one of the more equiped would have similar nose concept and cant pass a crash test with it.

P.S Maybe they have a Lotus nose coming??

[Jef Patat]

P.S Maybe they have a Lotus nose coming??

And why would that be? The lotus nose is built around a completely different concept of how to get air to the underbody/sidepods, you think Merc is chaninging all that because of ... what?

[el-Magico]

Mercedes composite stuctures simulations can't be that inaccurate to cause so many failed crash tests as reported. Even a caterham passes the crash test in a few tries with that hideous looking proboscis.

Maybe they (Merc.) are more on the limit..

[gray41]

I think someone said the new nose would be shorter?