McLaren MP4-29 Mercedes

[adrianjordan]

Ooo....that looks good. I wonder if they'll have a quick livery launch or whether they'll just roll out in FP1 with the new livery...

...I think they'll go for a repeat of the 2006 approach of driver name on the sidepod...though I'd prefer numbers, if only to avoid having an F1 car with "Kevin" on the side..!!

[markn93]

Ooo....that looks good. I wonder if they'll have a quick livery launch or whether they'll just roll out in FP1 with the new livery...

...I think they'll go for a repeat of the 2006 approach of driver name on the sidepod...though I'd prefer numbers, if only to avoid having an F1 car with "Kevin" on the side..!!

Agreed. KMag would be cool although it wouldn't work in JB's case.

[daveyrace]

Good spot on the stiffener that you marked in orange. At first I thought the change in colour on the inside was just the edge of a piece of carbon fabric, but then I saw the discontinuity in the reflection on the outside of the tip, at a very similar height, indicating the presence of a stiffer zone. Well spotted.

I don't agree that the green section is not load-bearing. I really don't see any kevlar fibres either. On the contrary, the honeycomb in this section is clearly visible in the ruptured area near the top right corner of the AMuS watermark. I think the top and bottom half of the tip have equal dimensions, also because I don't see a reason why they wouldn't have. At the front edge of the bottom section no honeycomb is visible but this is probably the same on the top. The reason is it is difficult to incorporate honeycomb in a section with high (double) curvature, like the very tip of the nose.

In fact, the presence of the stiffener you spotted is the best proof that the tip does carry some load in case of impact. The stiffener prevents the sidewall of the tip from buckling as a whole, keeping deformations more in-plane and increasing energy absorption. Don't be distracted by the low thickness of the composite facesheets. It is not difficult to design a 2mm thick CFRP plate that has a maximum compressive load of 1000N/mm. Of course this is an impact structure so it is designed to fail at a much lower load but it doesn't mean it does nothing.

I agree that it is kept very light though (mass very far away from C.o.G. so it adds a lot to yaw inertia) and in higher speed impact the part starting at the FW mounts will do most of the work.

I agree it is designed to be part of the impact structure and is doing an important job, I was just trying to compare it to the main impact structure behind which will take far higher loads. I just worded it badly ! As you say those stiffeners will be important in the failure mode of the tip in a crash.

I meant that the top half of the nose tip appears thicker than the base so will be more of a structural part than the base, if it is thinner. Obviously together it forms a tube shape which gives it a lot of its strength, I just thought it interesting that the top half is a thicker composite than the base. If you look at the sides, the far side has broken off forward of the near side and still appears thicker than the section under.

I thought it may be a honeycomb structure when I first looked in the bottom half, not sure though, if you look at the original photo there is an indent which I have followed in green, where the lower half meets the top and appears to be thinner composite. A kevlar weave rather than honeycomb would make more sense for stiffening this part? It looks thinner to me and kevlar weave would be that colour and leave those 'fluffy' yellow bits sticking out which doesnt happen at the top.
It appears to have failed differently to the top half, tearing more, whereas the top part looks to have cracked with the laminate layers separating from the honeycomb centre. There is far more of the bottom section remaining. This would indicate to me that the bottom part is more flexible and tear resistant than the top, which is what would happen if it were thinner and had a kevlar weave rather than honeycomb. It is a pity the photo is not a better resolution. anyway...

[akshat21]

Ok here we go. First Pictures from Melbourne via AMuS.

The "Mobil1" an the Guys shirt plus the Chrome Color on the Headrest lead me to believe that these are McLaren Sidepods. Which would mean a new Livery with more Black.

http://img4.auto-motor-und-sport.de/Imp ... 763002.jpg

Edit: On closer look it seems to be totally different than the Sidepods at the Pre Season Tests. One straigt Arc whereas the "current" MP4/29 has lots of curves. Weird.

Side On Pic from Sutton Images. The side pods look different from testing..

Sorry for the small image. Couldn't find a bigger one. (IMAGE SOURCE : SUTTON IMAGES)

[Lucky]

on the other hand

[Thunder]

They're teasing soo hard.

[bauc]

They're teasing soo hard.

Yes they are....C'mon MCL give us some nice shots of the Mp4-29 with the new livery ... [-o<

[Xero]

I'd guess the stickers have yet to be placed on them? Not sure if they'd do this at the factory or the circuit, I've seen clips of both in the past. To keep potential new sponsors under wraps I'd guess they'll wait.

Looks good so far! Was hoping for a West type livery, looks like this is close.

[mclaren777]

I'd guess the stickers have yet to be placed on them?

Unless something has changed, Mclaren doesn't believe in putting decals/stickers on its cars.

Everything is painted.

[Pup]

I'd guess the stickers have yet to be placed on them?

Unless something has changed, Mclaren doesn't believe in putting decals/stickers on its cars.

Everything is painted.

Stickers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI8QRFYTnAw

[Pup]

Looking at how closely the curve of the inside line of black matches the mockup below, I wonder if McLaren may have taken this guy's suggestion to heart...

[mikeerfol]

=D> =D>

[boson]

It does look like a much nicer car when the finger is one colour and the wing pylons are black, as if it was a nice old school nose!

[Jef Patat]

on the other hand
http://img4.auto-motor-und-sport.de/McL ... 763405.jpg

What are those small holes for, have they always been there?

[gray41]

Is it time yet?