Mercedes-AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+

[Vanja #66]

Actually, now there's a lot of separation. Transition zone between laminar and turbulent boundary layer is still there, also.

[KnottyBwoy]

My personal opinion is that they were planing to go with the first concept an in parallel prepare this one and test it during the season. However, during the first week of testing they decided that they need to check it rather sooner than later and bring it now...

I smell fear.

This is the kind of technical analysis I come here. What you smell.

Fear from people who doesn't like mercedes and ham to succeed this year...they're rattled now after seeing merc's real car and starting to make themselves feel better even if it's hard to.They were so happy when they thought merc is in trouble after last week's test.In the end...they were fooled by merc.watch.

[Jozsusz]

Actually, now there's a lot of separation. Transition zone between laminar and turbulent boundary layer is still there, also.

So what does this mean exactly?

[TwanV]

Mercedes have said so many things in the past that everybody is totally confused now. Bottas last week said they have "major issues" in some corners. I don't think he has any reason to lie, normally Mercedes say "all ok, testing program is more important than times." There's something going on, doesn't smell like fear, more like actual truth? I know it sounds weird.

[jjn9128]

Actually, now there's a lot of separation. Transition zone between laminar and turbulent boundary layer is still there, also.

[Unc1eM0nty]

As has been said already these parts must have been many weeks if not months in the making.

It's the changes to the rear of the sidepod that strikes me most though, this must have cased an awfull lot of work, all the plumbing and internals would need to be re-routed and re-positioned to fit this new profile, that's tons of work right there.

[dren]

Actually, now there's a lot of separation. Transition zone between laminar and turbulent boundary layer is still there, also.

So what this mean exactly?

There was a good post by F1T bot on this page:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=27911&start=315

[jjn9128]

Actually, now there's a lot of separation. Transition zone between laminar and turbulent boundary layer is still there, also.

So what this mean exactly?

Slots in an aerofoil work a number of ways, one of which is to introduce a fresh boundary layer - so after the slot the air flow is laminar, the pressure gradients on such high camber aerofoils is so extreme (the rear of the flap is almost vertical) that the air then transitions back to turbulence and even separates toward the trailing edge. The separation is not a bad thing necessarily and wont mean any loss of downforce, it just indicates that it is being worked to the absolute limit.

A leading edge separation on the other hand would be catastrophic.

[Vanja #66]

Fear from people who doesn't like mercedes and ham to succeed this year...they're rattled now after seeing merc's real car and starting to make themselves feel better even if it's hard to.They were so happy when they thought merc is in trouble after last week's test.In the end...they were fooled by merc.watch.

Praise the Almighty, for we are truly #blessed with these highly technical comments!

So what does this mean exactly?

Mercedes have pushed their wing over the limit. And quite badly so, separation of about a third of this length (chord-wise) would be acceptable, this is not. This is also killing diffuser and floor performance, just a bit but enough. Can't imagine this wing would provide the car with required mid-corner-behavior-predictability.

There there Gandalf.

[Coefficient]

I smell fear.

This is the kind of technical analysis I come here. What you smell.

Fear from people who doesn't like mercedes and ham to succeed this year...they're rattled now after seeing merc's real car and starting to make themselves feel better even if it's hard to.They were so happy when they thought merc is in trouble after last week's test.In the end...they were fooled by merc.watch.

Highly unlikely they knocked up this new aero package over the weekend motivated by fear of the Ferrari concept. They've done a lot of work on the cooling solutions for the engine so I think they decided to run a conservative aero package to guarantee interruption free running of the power unit in week one. The added benefit of this is the extra week of development time for the new package meaning these new parts were just gently browning in the autoclave last week, ready for today.

[pantherxxx]

This is the kind of technical analysis I come here. What you smell.

Fear from people who doesn't like mercedes and ham to succeed this year...they're rattled now after seeing merc's real car and starting to make themselves feel better even if it's hard to.They were so happy when they thought merc is in trouble after last week's test.In the end...they were fooled by merc.watch.

Highly unlikely they knocked up this new aero package over the weekend motivated by fear of the Ferrari concept. They've done a lot of work on the cooling solutions for the engine so I think they decided to run a conservative aero package to guarantee interruption free running of the power unit in week one. The added benefit of this is the extra week of development time for the new package meaning these new parts were just gently browning in the autoclave last week, ready for today.

How would a more aggressive aero package "interrupt" running of the power unit?

[GrizzleBoy]

Tighter packaging = other components/cable looms/electronics/bodywork closer to heat sources = requires strong cooling package = lack of which can result in unforeseen overheating issues ala McLaren in their maiden Honda years.

[Morteza]

[PhillipM]

You are thinking about traditional bump steer. That will happen even without any pushrod and for some silly reason you think i don't know about that, but think about this :
The pushrod arm is offset from the turning axis. So it will steer the wheel once it extends, no matter what.
And this is exactly why the pushrod and steering are now "linked". Steer and the car lowers. Compress the suspension and the car steers slightly. They are both hard connected by the hub.
I said in F1 the dispmacements are small so they can get away with it somewhat. (i think something tiny like 5 to 10mm it was? )
And went on to say if it were for aero reasons and u want the big ole wing thing sticking out but you dont want the megative effects you could put some cam thingy inside of it to compensate.

That's because traditional bump steer is the only bump steer worth thinking about. Because anything else isn't bump steer.

Suspension extention and compression changing loads on the pushrod is not bump steer. Otherwise we'd have to take the springs out and make cars hover to get rid of bump steer
All it does is change spring preloads, nothing more, nothing less. It's nothing to do with small amounts of travel - road cars use this to alter steering loads, Dakar cars with 12 inches of travel use it (the opposite way around to F1, usually) to stiffen initial responses...it's nothing new, it's nothing fancy, it's just interesting that Merc have pushed it so far when before they didn't bother. That's it.

And the LAST thing you'd want at the end of your pushrod is some moving/sliding cam piece - that would give you an insane amount of slop in your suspension. It'd be like having the damper and spring disconnected for most of the travel.

[javspace]

Bottas stops on circuit. Maybe due to tighter packaging