Mercedes AMG F1 W05

[stefan_]

Of course we will have pictures. At least while I'm still around here

Bahrain Testing - Day 1 (08.04.2014)

[Aaronque]

Bigger "ears"

[thomin]

From what the BBC said, it wasn't the Engine guys that came up with it, it was the chassis people at Mercedes who asked for the move to happen as it freed up space at the back of the car!

BBC Sport's chief F1 writer Andrew Benson in Bahrain:
"During Friday practice we explained why the Mercedes car is so fast, because of a clever layout of the engine, with the compressor at the front and the turbine at the back, which reduces throttle lag, improves weight and packaging and frees up the electrical parts of the power unit to produce more power at the wheels.

We have a bit more info now on the detail behind that. The key is the better airflow into the compressor, because the air has less far to travel from the inlet. Less pressure loss at the compressor leads to more power than is available from the Ferrari and Renault engines. The interesting thing is that apparently the idea initially came from the chassis team, aware of the potential packaging, weight and weight distribution advantages of splitting the turbine and compressor. The engine team realised it was an enormous technical challenge and were not initially sure whether they could pull it off. But they have, and the results are spectacular."

I always wondered whence the optimism at Mercedes came regarding their engine. This may very well be it.

[sectionate]

I reckon so, it is one of the innovations that targets everything, not just one thing.

[Mandrake]

Could the advantage be from moving the compressor to the front of the engine? Sky sports F1 we're reporting that moving that away from the turbine means the packaging is smaller in the side pods due to a cooler compressor being away from the turbine, as well as less pipe work, leading to less turbo lag. Cue the poor pun but is that the silver bullet for the silver arrows?

Yes - more power, less lag, lighter weight, smaller intercooler giving better internal air flow, moves weight forward which is a benefit this year. There are a lot of benefits to that relatively simple innovation.

But it's worth acknowledging that the entire car is top of its class in all departments, there's no one silver bullet but equally there's not really any one weakness. It's a beautifully designed and put together race car.

- Best integration of chassis and engine
- Best software amongst all Merc engined cars
- Comparing with other Merc powered cars is only half valid: Force India has a good midfield car, Williams has a medium midfield car, but they are positively flattered by the engine. MGP had the second best car last season, close to RedBull. No wonder they are now that much ahead.

If all engines were equal I'd guess we would be seeing the same order as last year. Merc closely in the mix with RedBull, Ferrari and Lotus behind that followed by FI, McLaren and Toro Rosso.

[fawe4]

The biggest advantage they have over the others is still their ers-k/h system. Lauda in one of his german tv interviews confirmed it by saying that theirs is considerably better when it comes to power distribution, making it as friendly for the driver as possible. I reckon it even works close to being a traction control. Push it and it does the job for you.

Just look at starts and restarts as they blitz out of the pack by considerable margin. Another tell is traction out of slow speed corners, where other teams (RB is exception, theirs ers-k/h is still second best) are having traction problems, they are planted even in the rain.

[tranquility2k4]

Are Mercedes trialing a tighter cooling solution at the back of the car?

Firstly: Bigger ears?




Now look at the back left of the car:




and the back right of the car in this:




They appear to have tested the new panel on both left and right sides - it looks like it will provide a larger tunnel exit around the exaust and then feed down from this, but the benefit is that the air outlets on the sidepods can be removed/(reduced?) allowing much better airflow?

Edit: having looked back at previous pics I think I may be imagining this...

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Good look at the PU106 A and the compressor up front.


via OmniCorse.it

[aleks_ader]

Are Mercedes trialing a tighter cooling solution at the back of the car?
Firstly: Bigger ears?
http://i.imgur.com/7zMMXPT.jpg
Now look at the back left of the car:
http://i.imgur.com/7P9P4iI.jpg
nd the back right of the car in this:

http://i.imgur.com/PaGdhhm.jpg
They appear to have tested the new panel on both left and right sides - it looks like it will provide a larger tunnel exit around the exaust and then feed down from this, but the benefit is that the air outlets on the sidepods can be removed/(reduced?) allowing much better airflow?

Edit: having looked back at previous pics I think I may be imagining this...

Yes! This is just reflection wich is projected on the endplate. Still interesting "illusion".

[Ricky Bobby]

Going back to talk about the fuel; Mercedes, Williams and Force India all use Petronas fuel & lubricants while Mclaren use Mobil fuel and lubricants. There is some chance that Mercedes will be running a different spec fuel compared to Williams and Force India but I don't believe there will be a 30bhp/5% power increase from fuel spec to fuel spec, just purely due to how tight the regulations are.

As long as the fuel has been approved by the FIA, you could theoretically use a different fuel at every race, although the cost tends to be huge as it's not exactly cheap stuff to make in big quantities, yet alone small quantities.

[.poz]

The biggest advantage they have over the others is still their ers-k/h system.

I agree. The splited turbo can give a margin of a couple of tenths or half a second, not a couple of seconds.

The question is: it's just software or they have something different from other merc powered teams ?

BTW someone knows if the merc engine for client teams comes with the ES (like Ferrari) or every team has to develop it's own (like Renault powered team) ?

[gray41]

Will they be running the new PU upgrade?

[markn93]

Will they be running the new PU upgrade?

I think they are, hence the pounding round, 89 laps already!

[Holm86]

Will they be running the new PU upgrade?

What PU upgrade??

[markn93]

Will they be running the new PU upgrade?

What PU upgrade??

New reliability upgrade spec for China.