Mercedes AMG F1 W03

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

I believe it's just the nature of the Monaco circuit.
The car has immense traction out of low and medium speed corners, and this helps them no end.
The moment this car needs high speed DF, it starts to be found wanting.

Check the onboard footage of the mercs around turn 9 in Spain, high speed left hander. It's not as settled as a McLaren or Red bull. But check the final medium speed right corner, and it seems to have tremendous traction out of it.

[nacho]

In that second detail pic. Notice the bubblegum like substance filling the gap between the cabling and the aperture in the monocoque.

MacGuyver explosive gum?

Might not be that, it's different color to that.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Mercedes have a more explosive iteration perhaps? Bigger budget = Nicer colour.

[PlatinumZealot]

Any insights regarding whether todays qualifying performance was down to
1) DDRS allowing Mercedes to run a softer setup giving them a significant advantage in the middle sector or
2) a dropping track temperature playing into the hands of a Mercedes car which typically works the rears fairly hard, making it easier for them to get the rears up to optimum working temperature during the outlap?

I'd say it's due to the car's already excellent traction out of corners. This may be due to the suspected linked suspension. It keeps the car from squatting out of corners and diving into them. I don't think the DDRS would be worth much here because the other teams don't sacrifice their ride heights due to high downforce on long straights. Perhaps the cars were good, but because Monaco is such a driver dependant track as well, it really shows how good Nico and Schumacher are. I think it probably is a bit of all of the above.

You know, I was gonna agree with you, but i think quite the opposite! I think because of their suspension they can get drag car like traction out the corners by softening up the suspension in squat since you don't need to be ultra stiff for these slow speed low G Monaco corners. The squatting of the car as it powers out the slow corners smooths out the delivery me thinks. On the other side of the coin, in high speed corners when the suspension is squashed, the linked system is set in such a way that it goes hard to stop the squat. Just my thoughts though.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

If that simple Nsmikle, Wouldnt it be easier to compensate for higher speed corners where they suffer big time?
Not only that, but you could tune it even further to help with tyre deg.

There is no doubt this car is showing alot of leaning tendencies in corners, probably the most of any out there.

[ss01layinwheel]

Does anyone have any good pics from qualy? Word on the street is they have a new set of side pods. Not to sure how true this is, but curious to see what they did if it is true.

[amouzouris]

Photos from Qualy:

[Adamski]

Does anyone have any good pics from qualy? Word on the street is they have a new set of side pods. Not to sure how true this is, but curious to see what they did if it is true.

I'm also wondering about this, when i see some earlier post the picture from Schumacher at the hairpin. Well, I made some enhancement.

For me, it looks curvier at the beginning, just like the Red Bull's. You can notice it from the pillars, that fixing the barge boards, because they are longer now.

Sorry, can't find better positions (left is from China, right is from Monaco):

[italian]

Article + video about the Mercedes F-Duct by Piola: http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... er&act=url It's translated from Italian.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

@ Adamski

I dont they're any different, I believe its the camera angle making it look more extreme.

[Adamski]

@ Adamski

I dont they're any different, I believe its the camera angle making it look more extreme.

Yes, it's very-very hard to make any firm conclusion from here. But that is why i make some circles. If you look specially at the pillars, you can see, that it was shorter before, but now it is longer and has a black color.

Why they would change it, if there's no differences at the sidepod's shape?

Anyway, if it is new and more curved, what could be the benefit of it?

[Chrisaix]

Indeed, i think the sidepods sweeps inside a little bit more. The connection between the sidepods and pillars do indeed look longer compared before.

[marcush.]

looks different in the area of turning vane to sidepod connection and Formula1 .com states Mercedes has new sidepods this weekend besides the new bottom mount rear brake calipers and the new wide spaced front wing stays.

=D> =D> w03 certainly is a sturdy little bastard considering rear suspension of Lotus is yielding when making contact with
W03 s front suspension....surprisingly the toe rod did not give up on impact ...

[zyphro]

http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/ ... 9/964.html

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

@ Adamski

Good spot initially. And there was more to the sidepods than just the angle of the photo.

Mercedes have brought almost a 'B-spec' version of their car to Monaco. It features the new nose seen in Spain, as well as new sidepods and this new rear suspension/brake set-up. The left-hand drawing shows the older solution with the brake callipers located vertically, in front of the rear axle. The right-hand drawing is the new solution with horizontally-placed callipers below the axle, which reduce the centre of gravity of the rear suspension. Together with the car's lighter carbon gearbox case, this revised set-up helps the drivers to have better control of the rear tyres.

Mercedes have changed many bits on the car, including a new nose and a different gearbox(carbon cased) along with a different rear suspension configuration.
I'm of the firm belief they had the fastest car around Monaco, backed up by Schumacher's pole and Rosberg's ability to stay close to Webber lap after lap. Not more than 1.8 seconds barring pit stops.
What Canada will hold for them is anyone's guess. But those long straights will definitely help them as will the hairpin leading into the back straight, this W03 has immense low speed traction and will suit this section of the circuit.