McLaren MP4-29 Mercedes

[Jef Patat]

I noticed the McLarens were quite high on the fuel usage during the race whilst the other Mercedes powered cars were doing very well. Butterfly suspension related perhaps?

I've been thinking about that as well, it has been said from the beginning that the suspension might have a drag penalty.

[gray41]

Its one of the main differences when comparing it with the other Mercedes-Benz powered cars, you could argue its the worst of the 4 teams.

[willmesquita]

I noticed the McLarens were quite high on the fuel usage during the race whilst the other Mercedes powered cars were doing very well. Butterfly suspension related perhaps?

I've been thinking about that as well, it has been said from the beginning that the suspension might have a drag penalty.

The closest a team goes to 100% at the end, the better. Seems that team's fuel consumption predictions are accurate. To finish a race with 10% fuel in the tank is to carry more stuff than you need.

[Jef Patat]

You have a point, we can't know exactly if they actually use more fuel as the live feed only showed %. Percentage wise every team will get close to 0 at the end of the race, we know that they can estimate that very well for many years/decades, that's nothing new. It was interesting though to see that they were at a higher usage percentage in the beginning of the race compared to mercs and williams while they were only at the same speed of the williams. Its just guessing on our part.

[beelsebob]

I noticed the McLarens were quite high on the fuel usage during the race whilst the other Mercedes powered cars were doing very well. Butterfly suspension related perhaps?

I've been thinking about that as well, it has been said from the beginning that the suspension might have a drag penalty.

The closest a team goes to 100% at the end, the better. Seems that team's fuel consumption predictions are accurate. To finish a race with 10% fuel in the tank is to carry more stuff than you need.

As I said on many other threads. The 100% referred to in the graphic is not 100% of the fuel on board, it's 100% of the 100kg limit. They may only have 92kg on board, and hence have 92% of the limit being 100% of the fuel on the car.

[Jackles-UK]

Look how the 'penis' is attached under the nose.

http://img4.auto-motor-und-sport.de/McL ... 768070.jpg

Interesting to see that the under wing strakes are very intricately curved (I hadn't seen this before - sorry if I'm just slow on the uptake!). This is presumably to enhance vortex generation similar to the Red Bull front brake winglets. It's something I have thought would be beneficial for a while now; use the strakes to not just pull air through the wing itself but then to directly aim the passing air at other parts of the car more accurately.

[adrianjordan]

I noticed the McLarens were quite high on the fuel usage during the race whilst the other Mercedes powered cars were doing very well. Butterfly suspension related perhaps?

I've been thinking about that as well, it has been said from the beginning that the suspension might have a drag penalty.

Surely if the were just naturally slower on this circuit, then they could use more fuel to maintain the same laptimes compared to rivals...??

[Thunder]

That Front wing Stakes look amazing. Never seen them curved.

[Jef Patat]

That Front wing Stakes look amazing. Never seen them curved.

Indeed, can't get my head around it at all. The curvature also increases outwards, looks cool, but i wonder why. Anyone?

[trinidefender]

I noticed the McLarens were quite high on the fuel usage during the race whilst the other Mercedes powered cars were doing very well. Butterfly suspension related perhaps?

I've been thinking about that as well, it has been said from the beginning that the suspension might have a drag penalty.

Surely if the were just naturally slower on this circuit, then they could use more fuel to maintain the same laptimes compared to rivals...??

No because the fuel flow cannot be increased. Therefore the acceleration of their car will be slower than others.

[beelsebob]

That assumes that they're at the fuel flow limit at all times. Clearly that's not true, or all teams would be using the exact same amount of fuel.

[trinidefender]

That assumes that they're at the fuel flow limit at all times. Clearly that's not true, or all teams would be using the exact same amount of fuel.

No it doesn't. It simply assumes that while at full throttle a car with more drag would accelerate slower and as they are accelerating slower they spend more time at full throttle. Hence more fuel being burned.

Say in Malaysia a more draggy car (both cars using the same engine) spends on average 2 seconds per lap extra on full throttle as a result of being more draggy and accelerating slower. Over the race distance of 56 laps, the car producing more drag would burn approximately 3.1 kg more fuel.

100kg/hr = ~ 27.8g/second of fuel.
27.8g/s x 2 seconds/lap x 56 laps = ~ 3.1kg of fuel burned extra per race.

[adrianjordan]

That assumes that they're at the fuel flow limit at all times. Clearly that's not true, or all teams would be using the exact same amount of fuel.

No it doesn't. It simply assumes that while at full throttle a car with more drag would accelerate slower and as they are accelerating slower they spend more time at full throttle. Hence more fuel being burned.

Say in Malaysia a more draggy car (both cars using the same engine) spends on average 2 seconds per lap extra on full throttle as a result of being more draggy and accelerating slower. Over the race distance of 56 laps, the car producing more drag would burn approximately 3.1 kg more fuel.

100kg/hr = ~ 27.8g/second of fuel.
27.8g/s x 2 seconds/lap x 56 laps = ~ 3.1kg of fuel burned extra per race.

BUt full throttle may not be 100% of the fuel flow rate permitted...depending on the mappings being used...

[trinidefender]

That assumes that they're at the fuel flow limit at all times. Clearly that's not true, or all teams would be using the exact same amount of fuel.

No it doesn't. It simply assumes that while at full throttle a car with more drag would accelerate slower and as they are accelerating slower they spend more time at full throttle. Hence more fuel being burned.

Say in Malaysia a more draggy car (both cars using the same engine) spends on average 2 seconds per lap extra on full throttle as a result of being more draggy and accelerating slower. Over the race distance of 56 laps, the car producing more drag would burn approximately 3.1 kg more fuel.

100kg/hr = ~ 27.8g/second of fuel.
27.8g/s x 2 seconds/lap x 56 laps = ~ 3.1kg of fuel burned extra per race.

BUt full throttle may not be 100% of the fuel flow rate permitted...depending on the mappings being used...

You are really getting into semantics here. There are two very long straights in Malaysia where it is pretty certain full throttle will be 100%. My point is that yes a car with more drag will use more fuel than one with less drag.

[Jef Patat]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113209

"The strengths of our car can't really show through.
"And the heat made those issues that we had even worse. I think with a cooler race, we'll have reasonable pace."

First thing I hear of heat related issues, anyone has a clue? Tyres, internal cooling?