Mercedes GP MGP W01

[ESPImperium]

True. But it would make F1 cars look wildly weirdly interesting.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

It looks like an F1 car should...FAST.

Hope it is.

How will mercedes incorporate the F-duct? Make the smaller engine wing wider with a tube a la McLaren? Or round the sides

[BreezyRacer]

The main thing I would be concerned about is losing intake air while in yaw. I'm sure they've worked to figure this out BUT you don't know till you blast it around some long fast corners first. It could cause 1 bank to go lean and then bang.

It should provide some better airflow to the rear wing though ..

The ultra simple front splitter (what I've been able to see if it anyways) is curious .. pretty much just a flat plate. Did anyone see any more details on that, like maybe bringing back the cow catcher design they had last year.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Breezy
The actual air intakes are standing proud of the body.

Will the not help while in Yaw? Your post had me thinking in horror of Monzas right hand final corner.....

[marcush.]

the term is natural aspirated ,right ? the added volume of air through higher pressure is not significant it sureöy is not starving the engine from air.We do not know if bank1 and 2 do not share a common plenum so maybe the added pressure of inlet 1 can compesate for the others losses in yaw..we will surely see or will soon see this solution disapppear..I´d say a lot of teams will now look into their rollhoop concept for 2011..clever move by Mercedes to show the dedicated solution only later in the year ? Funny they feel the engine cover is a main area of development for them..and we talked so much about ballast and wheelbase...

The front looks exactly as I predicted...

so the Gearbox /difusser update is scheduled for Montecarlo?

[bugref]

I Appreciate all the pics, I thank you all. For now it will all go down now to testing. Good luck Mr. Schumacher, I do hope Rosberg will improve even more. But I am looking at Schumacher status since his the one struggling, I wanna see how he improves prior to this update.

God Speed to all.

[BreezyRacer]

the term is natural aspirated ,right ? the added volume of air through higher pressure is not significant it sureöy is not starving the engine from air.We do not know if bank1 and 2 do not share a common plenum so maybe the added pressure of inlet 1 can compesate for the others losses in yaw..we will surely see or will soon see this solution disapppear..I´d say a lot of teams will now look into their rollhoop concept for 2011..clever move by Mercedes to show the dedicated solution only later in the year ? Funny they feel the engine cover is a main area of development for them..and we talked so much about ballast and wheelbase...

The front looks exactly as I predicted...

so the Gearbox /difusser update is scheduled for Montecarlo?

I agree that they are using a central air plenum. However air plenums, whether for boosted engines or not, need a very even pressure distribution and it took many years in the 70's to iron that whole thing out. With two side oriented intakes you do have the problem of uneven charge .. whether it turns out to be a real problem or not is yet to say. It's not like they could emulate that in a wind tunnel or even CFD with any accuracy. And of course you always have the potential of cross wind conditions which would exacerbate the problem even more.

[ringo]

Why can't the nose change?
Gascoyne said he would have to do a crash test to change his lotus nose, but he did not say it cannot be changed. If he had the time for a crash test, i think he would change it.
Merc may change their nose as well, maybe not now, could be practice 3, or even next race, ie if it's a problem to begin with.

The changes i notice with the car is the extension of the sheilds under the nose. This is what i had predicted they would do, and they have continued to extend those sheilds on the wing supports. The under nose sheilds seem like a band aid.
I don't think that nose is what they see as their ideal design, maybe it's the crash test that's holding them back.

The new engine intake isn't event that special, if one looks carefully, all they did was cut it back more. Nothing special.

Other changes on the covers, the front wings, the rear wing seem very subtle. But if they're confident i guess we just have to wait and see.

[PlatinumZealot]

the term is natural aspirated ,right ? the added volume of air through higher pressure is not significant it sureöy is not starving the engine from air.We do not know if bank1 and 2 do not share a common plenum so maybe the added pressure of inlet 1 can compesate for the others losses in yaw..we will surely see or will soon see this solution disapppear..I´d say a lot of teams will now look into their rollhoop concept for 2011..clever move by Mercedes to show the dedicated solution only later in the year ? Funny they feel the engine cover is a main area of development for them..and we talked so much about ballast and wheelbase...

The front looks exactly as I predicted...

so the Gearbox /difusser update is scheduled for Montecarlo?

I agree that they are using a central air plenum. However air plenums, whether for boosted engines or not, need a very even pressure distribution and it took many years in the 70's to iron that whole thing out. With two side oriented intakes you do have the problem of uneven charge .. whether it turns out to be a real problem or not is yet to say. It's not like they could emulate that in a wind tunnel or even CFD with any accuracy. And of course you always have the potential of cross wind conditions which would exacerbate the problem even more.

F1 cars drive on really large radii and they are never really sliding sideways. So I suspect that the oncoming air comes in at very small angles even in the sharpest of turns.

[ArchAngel]

Some reduction in frontal area must've been achieved with that redesigned airbox-engine cover, resulting in slightly less aero drag. Who knows? By moving it lower & rearwards, it could even have helped ever-so-slightly to lower the car's CoG, as well as fractionally contributed in their attempts (in addition to the reworked front wishbones/suspension) to sort out their weight distribution issues. Frankly, I like the sleeker look.

I'd rather look at the upside upon seeing the lack of any obvious changes with their nose and front & rear wings -- there's still room for significant development & gains to be made there, as well as the eventual appearance of a full-on "active" F-duct.

[shamikaze]

Could it not be that due to the reclined profile on the backside of the engine-cover, the air accelarates (much like the back-side of the wing- where the undeside here is formed by the underside + diffuser) ? Therefore, a smaller and placed further back, air-intake was possible providing less aera-drag, lower CoG and possibly even better engine-performance. The engine-performance I would doubt since these engines have clear-defined compression-ratios and playing/varying them to much with them on speed might throw a wrench in their whole program.

Another possibility:
By also stretching the base, bringing front-suspension) and driver a bit forward, this was maybe the cleanest way of not changing too much on the length of the air-intake.

[djones]

Ringo... I don't understand where you are coming from to say the intake is not special. Its like nothing we have ever seen before. Are you looking at the same pictures as everybody?



Its not just a different shape to the norm, its a totally different solution all together.

[timbo]

Its not just a different shape to the norm, its a totally different solution all together.

The key difference is the shape of roll structure.
It hadn't changed since car debut.

[djones]

I can see where your coming from I guess.

But using two detatched air intakes, and ones so low is pretty far out there.

[Blackout]

new deflectors and splitter (right)

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