Mercedes AMG F1 W07

[BreezyRacer]

Great flo vis pic! Now if we could only stick a mirror under the floor to see the rest of it.

[BreezyRacer]

They are using it in attempt of stalling some drag at hight speed, right?

My guess, it's supposed to direct more air into the tunnel cut under the side pod and eventually towards the diffuser.

IMO, it's quite the opposite. Increasing airflow under the floor reduces low pressure, it doesn't raise it.

I would suggest that these strakes are an effort to continue to redirect front airflow off to the side exit of the floor, where the curved edge of the floor is, as has been done for the past 5 years or so. The best tool to do this is the ports on the sides of the tea trays, which everyone does. By exiting airfow out to the sides of the floor you lower the pressure under the floor as early as possible, therefore creating as large a low pressure area as you can under the entire floor.

As for stalling out airflow, that's an interesting idea but it would be difficult to stall out airflow without treating a lot of turbulence, which is the death of underbody down force.

[noel]

They are using it in attempt of stalling some drag at hight speed, right?

My guess, it's supposed to direct more air into the tunnel cut under the side pod and eventually towards the diffuser.

IMO, it's quite the opposite. Increasing airflow under the floor reduces low pressure, it doesn't raise it.

I would suggest that these strakes are an effort to continue to redirect front airflow off to the side exit of the floor, where the curved edge of the floor is, as has been done for the past 5 years or so. The best tool to do this is the ports on the sides of the tea trays, which everyone does. By exiting airfow out to the sides of the floor you lower the pressure under the floor as early as possible, therefore creating as large a low pressure area as you can under the entire floor.

As for stalling out airflow, that's an interesting idea but it would be difficult to stall out airflow without treating a lot of turbulence, which is the death of underbody down force.

I meant the dogleg vane on the side - seen nowhere before. The barge board pieces look kinda twisted at the bottom, that and the serrated floor direct air under the car. I might have been looking at these pictures for too long, though.

[ringo]

They are using it in attempt of stalling some drag at hight speed, right?

My guess, it's supposed to direct more air into the tunnel cut under the side pod and eventually towards the diffuser.

IMO, it's quite the opposite. Increasing airflow under the floor reduces low pressure, it doesn't raise it.

I would suggest that these strakes are an effort to continue to redirect front airflow off to the side exit of the floor, where the curved edge of the floor is, as has been done for the past 5 years or so. The best tool to do this is the ports on the sides of the tea trays, which everyone does. By exiting airfow out to the sides of the floor you lower the pressure under the floor as early as possible, therefore creating as large a low pressure area as you can under the entire floor.

As for stalling out airflow, that's an interesting idea but it would be difficult to stall out airflow without treating a lot of turbulence, which is the death of underbody down force.

That's not entirely true. You would want to have increased air flow under the floor. Remember more than anything else you are dealing with energy of the air particles.
What you may find is that with less air going under, it loses energy some way along that length going towards the diffuser, and once there is a great reduction in energy the flow slows down and you have stalling and or pressure increases.

So yes you don't want too much air under the car, but you want as much air as possible that will give you as high a velocity and energy as possible going towards the diffuser. This is the whole concept behind the blown diffusers from a while back.

The strakes are doing a few simple things:
1. act as air foils and increase downforce. (air flowing behind the barge boards flow acrross the strakes and they can act as little multi element wings)
2. The act as flow straighteners and condition air (give it the proper velocity and level of turbulence) going under the floor.
3. The just outright increase the surface area of the floor in a region that allows body work to be.
4. Vortex generation to seal the sides of the floor, but i doubt this much.

[variante]

Also, the new photos reveal more clearly that no vortex generation is directly involved with those strakes. Waiting for pics that reveal the cross section of those things to confirm it....

I don't know if this helps:

Perfect! Thank you!

So the section should look something like this:
...which confirmes that the strakes work in tandem with the side diffuser.
Still, as mentioned in my first post, it is impressive that such solution was preferred over the powerful vortex shed by the lower edge of the bargeboard (no, this geometry doesn't allow for the formation of such vortex). That's the interesting thing about this W-floor.

[noel]

Also, the new photos reveal more clearly that no vortex generation is directly involved with those strakes. Waiting for pics that reveal the cross section of those things to confirm it....

I don't know if this helps:
http://img1.auto-motor-und-sport.de/Nic ... 929525.jpg

Perfect! Thank you!

So the section should look something like this:
http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag3 ... ftqnwa.png ...which confirmes that the strakes work in tandem with the side diffuser.
Still, as mentioned in my first post, it is impressive that such solution was preferred over the powerful vortex shed by the lower edge of the bargeboard (no, this geometry doesn't allow for the formation of such vortex). That's the interesting thing about this W-floor.

So, mega downforce in the middle, hopefully solving the balance issues we had post-Singapore?
Also, almost 500 laps without a hiccough.

[dans79]

Also, almost 500 laps without a hiccough.

Yep, that's about 3 complete race weekends worth of millage put on the car.

[PlatinumZealot]

No new nose?

[Morteza]

No new nose?

Nope!

[i70q7m7ghw]

No new nose?

Nope!

Not surprised, it's a red herring.

[George-Jung]

The attention to detail on this car is just amazing.. got to hand it to them, this W07 is looking like a beast!

[shelly]

Also, the new photos reveal more clearly that no vortex generation is directly involved with those strakes. Waiting for pics that reveal the cross section of those things to confirm it....

I don't know if this helps:
http://img1.auto-motor-und-sport.de/Nic ... 929525.jpg

Perfect! Thank you!

So the section should look something like this:
http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag3 ... ftqnwa.png ...which confirmes that the strakes work in tandem with the side diffuser.
Still, as mentioned in my first post, it is impressive that such solution was preferred over the powerful vortex shed by the lower edge of the bargeboard (no, this geometry doesn't allow for the formation of such vortex). That's the interesting thing about this W-floor.

The lower surface of each strake must be a 50mm radius cylinder because the leading edge rule still applies. In that sense it is a floor with a w shaped leading edge if viewed from the top. The strake taper at the front like a cylindrical surface cutout.

[variante]

The lower surface of each strake must be a 50mm radius cylinder because the leading edge rule still applies.

Edit: I wrote some bullshit here... I misread what you wrote, and you're right, surfaces facing the ground must be either flat or curved upwards with a maximum radius of 50mm. Even in the partially deregulated box shown here:

[mkable1370]

The lower surface of each strake must be a 50mm radius cylinder because the leading edge rule still applies.

No, it doesn't: there is a "deregulated" area (shown, roughly, in the pic below) where teams use to place very thin elements like bargeboards, turning vanes and also those things we keep calling "strakes"! In other words, no radius rule applies there.
http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag3 ... epxrku.jpg

Please forgive my ignorance of the nuances of the rules, as I'm just a casual fan who's trying to understand this new Mercedes development. If the "strakes" are each individual extensions of the floor how can they be exempt from the floor leading edge rule? From my layman's interpretation, it sounds like any team could then simple extend their floor forward into the "deregulated" area and then not have to comply with the leading edge rule.

[variante]

The lower surface of each strake must be a 50mm radius cylinder because the leading edge rule still applies.

No, it doesn't: there is a "deregulated" area (shown, roughly, in the pic below) where teams use to place very thin elements like bargeboards, turning vanes and also those things we keep calling "strakes"! In other words, no radius rule applies there.
http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag3 ... epxrku.jpg

Please forgive my ignorance of the nuances of the rules, as I'm just a casual fan who's trying to understand this new Mercedes development. If the "strakes" are each individual extensions of the floor how can they be exempt from the floor leading edge rule? From my layman's interpretation, it sounds like any team could then simple extend their floor forward into the "deregulated" area and then not have to comply with the leading edge rule.

I edited my previous post.

Anyway: the regulations do not specify things like "floor", "wings",... The radiused edges rule applies to any surface lying on the "step plane" (the plane where the floor sits), so it doesn't matter whether the strakes protrude from the floor or not: their lower surfaces, those facing the ground, must be either flat or radiused to a max of 50mm.

And no, you can't simply put your piece of bodywork just above the step plane so no rules apply... Actually, you can do that only if your piece of bodywork has a "shadow" (some bodywork, lying on the step plane, which covers at least the vertical projection of your original piece of bodywork).