Team: Toto Wolff (Executive Director), James Allison (Technical Director), Andy Cowell (Executive Director of Mercedes AMG Powertrains), Aldo Costa (Technical advisor), Mike Elliot (Technology Director), Mark Ellis (PD), Geoffrey Willis (Director of Digital Engineering Transformation), Ron Meadows (SD), Andrew Shovlin (Trackside Engineering Director), Simon Cole (CTE), Matthew Deane (CM), Loic Serra (HVD), John Owen (CD), Ashley Way (DCD), Rob Thomas (COO), Loic Serra (Performance Director), Jarrod Murphy (HA), Eric Blandin (CA) Drivers: Lewis Hamilton (44), Valtteri Bottas (77), Stoffel Vandoorne (reserve), Esteban Gutierrez (reserve) Team name: Mercedes AMG F1 Petronas Major partners: Petronas, Ineos, UBS, Epson, Bose, Tommy Hilfiger, IWS Schaffhausen, Hewlet Packard, Pure Storage, Crowdstrike, Tibco, AMD
A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
I remember being at Silverstone once, F3 were on the race-card and one of the competitors had a bit of a tangle early on and his air box (and therefore restrictor) was knocked off. He continued to the end, but was disqualified.
He started the race with a legal car, but didn’t finish with one!
F1 seems to operate to different rules, certainly as far as bodywork is concerned!
Was a significant performance advantaged gained? If not, nbd
Yes indeed. I'm surprised how the air appears to lift upwards in the coke bottle - I guess that's from air coming in laterally across the top of the floor. Or perhaps there's a "bubble" of slower air in front of the diffuser step / rear suspension that causes the air to flow upward in that zone. Slower air would be, relative to the air below the floor, high pressure meaning some downforce.
Yes indeed. I'm surprised how the air appears to lift upwards in the coke bottle - I guess that's from air coming in laterally across the top of the floor. Or perhaps there's a "bubble" of slower air in front of the diffuser step / rear suspension that causes the air to flow upward in that zone. Slower air would be, relative to the air below the floor, high pressure meaning some downforce.
What's the difference in actual chassis length? What is the actual difference in rake angle? From a chassis design standpoint, you have a minimum COG, so if you tilt the engine in the chassis you can play with that COG. Rake angle is just plank rake, it isn't necessarily chassis rake. Granted the floor itself has to follow the plank, but what about the stuff above the floor, does that need to follow the plank?
If your car has less rake, if you want more rake you have to redesign the front end to accommodate that, likewise, if you plan to run more rake, the rest of the car has to be modified to facilitate that. Mercedes has spent all of its development tokens at the front of the car. Perhaps they're planning to run more rake next season? Although they're already running rake, so it could be to allow them to run even less rake.
Other teams may not be able to do that, or not willing to do that. Mercedes can it has a nice advantage, I just hope it pans out because until now Mercedes has had a development advantage which has hidden their missteps, however each misstep allows others to get closer. If they make one from here to next season and others claw back ground they won't be able to react in time.
Some interesting photos of the Merc's airflow (other cars too) from the Turkish GP "bitumen flowviz":
Interesting how they used the Halo to shape airflow above the sidepods.
seen it, check out the one with the alfa romeo, look at the inner rear wheel just under the diffuser, water can be seen going upwards from the ground. ive been looking for a picture of it. don't know how far forward it is or behind
What's the difference in actual chassis length? What is the actual difference in rake angle? From a chassis design standpoint, you have a minimum COG, so if you tilt the engine in the chassis you can play with that COG. Rake angle is just plank rake, it isn't necessarily chassis rake. Granted the floor itself has to follow the plank, but what about the stuff above the floor, does that need to follow the plank?
If your car has less rake, if you want more rake you have to redesign the front end to accommodate that, likewise, if you plan to run more rake, the rest of the car has to be modified to facilitate that. Mercedes has spent all of its development tokens at the front of the car. Perhaps they're planning to run more rake next season? Although they're already running rake, so it could be to allow them to run even less rake.
Other teams may not be able to do that, or not willing to do that. Mercedes can it has a nice advantage, I just hope it pans out because until now Mercedes has had a development advantage which has hidden their missteps, however each misstep allows others to get closer. If they make one from here to next season and others claw back ground they won't be able to react in time.
if we look at longer chassis away from rake and observe the upper body aerodynamics, the longer chassis can also benefit. i remember reading or watching a video, cant remember, where an australia ex-bmw f1 aerodynamicist said that they always try and bring down as much airflow towards all the aero critical areas, sort of like to boost them
with a longer car, the elements to influence this would be further upstream, giving more time and space for the airflow to go downwards and also whatever vortex they are running along the car to work around its aero plan, they could stretch it to work with even more area
if we look at longer chassis away from rake and observe the upper body aerodynamics, the longer chassis can also benefit. i remember reading or watching a video, cant remember, where an australia ex-bmw f1 aerodynamicist said that they always try and bring down as much airflow towards all the aero critical areas, sort of like to boost them
with a longer car, the elements to influence this would be further upstream, giving more time and space for the airflow to go downwards and also whatever vortex they are running along the car to work around its aero plan, they could stretch it to work with even more area
Willem Toet.
Yes, the aero tries to bring "clean" air from above the car with as much of the "dirty" air being pushed out sideways as possible. The bargeboards are extremely important on this process.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
Motorsport.com wrote:Mercedes added some Styrofoam to the outboard end of the upper wishbone during Free Practice as it evaluated the 2021-specification tyres. The upper wishbone is raised by means of an upright extension, a solution that they’ve used for a number of years, but it does mean that at the joint it does run particularly close to the tyres’ sidewall. Given that the 2021 tyre has a slightly different shape to it the Styrofoam not only acts as a buffer, it also serves as a guide to the team if any of the surface is eroded.
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."~William Shakespeare
Motorsport.com wrote:Mercedes added some Styrofoam to the outboard end of the upper wishbone during Free Practice as it evaluated the 2021-specification tyres. The upper wishbone is raised by means of an upright extension, a solution that they’ve used for a number of years, but it does mean that at the joint it does run particularly close to the tyres’ sidewall. Given that the 2021 tyre has a slightly different shape to it the Styrofoam not only acts as a buffer, it also serves as a guide to the team if any of the surface is eroded.
Great photo of the car, to boot.
I'll add one more, because the details are lovely under the lights.
Amazing video, if only for the way that the rotating smoke from the lock up gives a decent visualization of the interaction of the tyre and front wing.
I'm well aware, but generally it isn't as visually obvious. This combination of track and setup led to a very very visible difference in wear patterns, far far more than evident in any photos from other race meetings.
All circuits will tend to wear one side more than the other as they have more left or right corners - Turkey has more left handers than right handers I think. T8, being a long left hander, will especially wear the right hand tyres more than the left.
the four immutable forces:
static balance
dynamic balance
static imbalance
dynamic imbalance
I'm well aware, but generally it isn't as visually obvious. This combination of track and setup led to a very very visible difference in wear patterns, far far more than evident in any photos from other race meetings.
Biggest surprise here is the difference in wear between left and right. Particularly in the front.
All circuits will tend to wear one side more than the other as they have more left or right corners - Turkey has more left handers than right handers I think. T8, being a long left hander, will especially wear the right hand tyres more than the left.
I think it was just a peculiarity of them running the tyres much further until they were much more slick than we would normally expect of an inter. When looking at slicks, the wear is often more one side than the other but it is more difficult to see - it's also not normally looked for because it's not an unusual thing in the way that wearing the inters down on purpose was. Also, on slicks, the deliberate picking up of marbles on the cool down lap tends to hide some of the clues about wear.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
