Today's unveiled Mercedes AMG F1 W09 resembles a lot its sucessful predecessor, the championship winning W08. And this is no coincidence, as team boss Toto Wolff reveals. However, there are some interesting changes to come this year with the new car.
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Looks like their way around rear tyre overheating issues.
I don't see how this plays into that - can you help explain?
Those ribs helps to extract the heat from rims. During braking rim heats up also during cornering temperature of tyre rises and rim conducts the heat. (Something like those ribs on your CPU cooler )
Regarding last elongated tyre squirt, it was used at hungary at least
More likely the ribs allow heat to be removed from the wheel and thus not heat the tyre.
Mercedes has better Tyre wear than most and has an issue transferring heat into the core of the tyre (the surface heats up but not the core). I think Scarbs might be right.
Is it possible that, because of the merc running low rake angles, the car develops a nose up attitude on the straights? Watching the TV coverage, it seems that the rear squats a fair amount, and it leaves an impression of the rear ride height being lower than the front ride height.
More likely the ribs allow heat to be removed from the wheel and thus not heat the tyre.
Mercedes has better Tyre wear than most and has an issue transferring heat into the core of the tyre (the surface heats up but not the core). I think Scarbs might be right.
But wouldnt the centre of the rim be heated while braking and from then it propagates over the whole surface? Those ribs looks more for transfer the heat out
Similar feature present on the RB14 rear wheels. Explaining function depends on brake duct airflow: generally, two main inlets (one between tire and fairing, the other a snorkel), an outlet pointing rearwards atop the winglet stack, flow within the gap between the cake tin and wheel (exiting toward the wheel spokes; inner end of wheel/fairing interface usually sealed with small polymer skirt), and any remaining flow that they choose to allow to exit the outer face of the cake tin.
Knowing what flows out of these three main outlets (ambient temperature air or brake disc & pad exhaust temperature air) should help determine whether the ribs are for heating or cooling the tire carcass.
The hot air from the brakes is blowing out through the wheel.
Exactly - remember, they heat the break disks before the race to make sure enough heat is transferred into the core of the tire. In fact, Mercedes was the first ones to introduce a black ribbed strip on the inside of the rim to further aid in getting heat into the core.
Is it possible that, because of the merc running low rake angles, the car develops a nose up attitude on the straights? Watching the TV coverage, it seems that the rear squats a fair amount, and it leaves an impression of the rear ride height being lower than the front ride height.
The Mercs have had very compliant suspension for some years now, they always look much softer than the other cars. I doubt it goes nose up at speed, maybe close to level if it change that much.
They have a larger number of thinner spokes and made the parts of those spokes nearest the point of contact with the hot hub thinner (by adding a hole in it). That all points to them trying to prevent heat getting to the tyre. If you wanted to get the rim hot, you wouldn't make the connections to the rim thinner, would you?
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.