Mercedes-AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+

[dans79]

Is it just me, or do the inner front wing supports turn in more than last week?

[siskue2005]

Mercedes introduce new nose and front wing

Mercedes have kicked off the second week of testing at Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona by adding a new front end to their W10. Having struggled with front end grip during the first 4 days of testing, the upgrades will come as a welcome addition to Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

As another evolutionary step in Mercedes unique thin nose cone, the team have further narrowed the nose and added some sculpting to improve airflow underneath and over the nose cape that managed airflow underneath and behind the nose. Last year, Mercedes already extended the leading edges of that cape further forward, while this step integrates the entire concept better into the shape of the nose.

In addition to the development of the nose, the team have also added a new front wing, which drops its unique inwash endplates. The team were the only ones to have this design, in what was obviously an early development step just to enable reliability testing.

The new wing has endplates that angle outward, including a cutout at the top to help airflow from the wing to flush over the endplate and around the front wheels. The flaps of the wing meanwhile have mainly changed in the outboard area, converging more towards {Renault}'s solution where the outside drops off to enhance the outwash.

Still, it's a long way apart from the concepts run by {Ferrari}, Alfa Romeo and {Toro Rosso}.

//f1tcdn.net/images/development/2019/bcn-merc-nose.jpg

Yes the inward endplate curve didnot give them strong vortexes as they hoped

[The Engineer]

Oh no it doesn't work like that guys. Hold on.

No matter the resources, the pieces come in batches and are planned well ahead.

The first batch (last week's car) was probably developed a few months ago, they've put the pieces and tried them, run different programs to correlate the data.

The second batch (this week's car) was probably developed just recently, and my guess is that it wasn't fully ready a week ago.

And btw, Hamilton cut the chicane, that's why it was 1.5 faster, so chill.

So true!
This car would have been in the pipeline 6 weeks or so ago, last week was used to get baselines and test theories.
A car including front wing, floor and body work does not go from brain to paint shop in a week.

[Shakeman]

Unless they have differing concepts for different types of races.

I think you might be on to something.

If you have near unlimited resources how would you make sure your car was optimised for high downforce and high speed circuits giving you the best possible chance on all circuits? Build two!

It may not be High Downforce vs High Speed it may be due to working the tyres differently from track to track such as race track vs street circuit.

Two cars would be the logical next step to improve those tracks where Merc have been historically poor while not compromising their performance on tracks they're historically good at.

Last week's car look too developed to be a test mule.

[F1Krof]

[The Engineer]

Unless they have differing concepts for different types of races.

I think you might be on to something.

If you have near unlimited resources how would you make sure your car was optimised for high downforce and high speed circuits giving you the best possible chance on all circuits? Build two!

There are too many unknowns with this and drivers will always prefer one over the other, this is why we only see a change in wings for high and low downforce venues. You can get lost in data. Last weeks car was a car to gather data, and test theories, that is all.

[Shakeman]

There are too many unknowns with this and drivers will always prefer one over the other, this is why we only see a change in wings for high and low downforce venues. You can get lost in data. Last weeks car was a car to gather data, and test theories, that is all.

Two cars would be the logical next step to improve those tracks where Merc have been historically poor while not compromising their performance on tracks they're historically good at.

Last week's car was too developed to be a 'test mule'.

The marginal gains come about through diving deep into data.

[Just_a_fan]

A car including front wing, floor and body work does not go from brain to paint shop in a week.

Not sure anyone was suggesting it did. The point is that they have the resources to design and build two different cars where some teams are stuggling to get one complete car out.

Mercedes will have amade a decision several months ago to go down this route of making a basic car as well as the intended baseline car, build both and then test both. That's a significant undertaking that most of the grid could not do even if they wanted to. It's another example of the gulf between the top three and the rest.

[F1Krof]

[mclaren111]

AlbertFabrega:




Is this legal ??

[supermarine]

While the whole package is quite clearly a long while in the making those front wing endplates could easily have been knocked up for the second test after the previous concept didn't work as it should in the first test.

[dans79]

While the whole package is quite clearly a long while in the making those front wing endplates could easily have been knocked up for the second test after the previous concept didn't work as it should in the first test.

The wing elements are different as well, it's not just the endplate.

[wesley123]

.
Some of the changes look really rushed out and prototyped.

I’ve looked at the pics, but what parts are rushed?

[Sieper]

The front wing/nose is totally new, almost every aspect is changed. This was clearly already in the planning but likely not finalized/finished for last week. Some of the other changes seem ad hoc. But that is what testing is for.

[RZS10]

According to AMuS, who spoke to some Merc engineers, this is the Melbourne spec and they did not have it on the car because not bringing it to the first test gave them more time in the wind tunnel