Mercedes AMG F1 W05

[dren]

It was indeed Spa where they were first run..

http://somersf1.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ ... s-wo5.html

Cheers Matt.

What do you make of the following article about Mercedes' sidepod (coke bottle undercut) updates: http://www.omnicorse.it/magazine/42226/ ... elle-pance

I looking into this and in my opinion no such changes were made. The sidepod and coke bottle footprint that is integrated with the cars floor has remained unchanged. What I believe Mercedes have done (first introduced in Italy on race day) is increase the size of the cooling exits above the diffuser, altering their bottom profile to a wide 'v' which consumes part of the coke bottle region constricting airflow in terms of visible area (not necessarily actual mass flow area). When compared to the original version of the sidepods (first used in Barcelona), one can see this early version (which featured the smallest cooling exit area) had the largest undercut/least coke bottle constriction.

They also updated their diffuser and removed the U shape, although Mclaren around the same time adopted it.

[stefan_]

Abu Dhabi 2014 - Thursday (20.11.2014)

[SiLo]

Just wondering to myself - if Mercedes has put no updates on this car after the first race at all, could they still have won the championship?

The fact that the answer is yes is very scary.

[JDC123]

Just wondering to myself - if Mercedes has put no updates on this car after the first race at all, could they still have won the championship?

The fact that the answer is yes is very scary.

It would be very difficult to ever prove this as a member of the public and I doubt it would be true. Teams can be as much as 3 seconds a lap faster at the end of the season so they would probably be overtaken by halfway through the season. Look back to Brawn GP who had a very small budget for development; they were overtaken as the european races finished.

[elf341]

Look back to Brawn GP who had a very small budget for development; they were overtaken as the european races finished.

Just wanted to correct this fallacy which is repeated a few times. In fact, after the summer break Brawn were still the highest scoring team, scoring 151 points (2 wins, 1 pole) after the break compared to Red Bull's 142 (3 wins, 1 pole).

Besides, even drawing level is not enough if a team is far enough ahead. This year, Mercedes at the summer break were 174 points ahead of Red Bull, which means that even if Red Bull had consecutive 1-2s to the end of the season, both Mercedes cars would need to finish lower than 5-6th every race for Red Bull to win, and even then they'd win the constructors by 1 point.

The W05 is indeed the most dominant car we have seen in a long time.

[Juzh]

Just wondering to myself - if Mercedes has put no updates on this car after the first race at all, could they still have won the championship?

The fact that the answer is yes is very scary.

=D>

[Gaz.]

Look back to Brawn GP who had a very small budget for development; they were overtaken as the european races finished.

Just wanted to correct this fallacy which is repeated a few times. In fact, after the summer break Brawn were still the highest scoring team, scoring 151 points (2 wins, 1 pole) after the break compared to Red Bull's 142 (3 wins, 1 pole).

Besides, even drawing level is not enough if a team is far enough ahead. This year, Mercedes at the summer break were 174 points ahead of Red Bull, which means that even if Red Bull had consecutive 1-2s to the end of the season, both Mercedes cars would need to finish lower than 5-6th every race for Red Bull to win, and even then they'd win the constructors by 1 point.

The W05 is indeed the most dominant car we have seen in a long time.

At summer break
Brawn 126
RedBull 98.5
Ferrari 46
Mclaren 41
Toyota 38.5

Season end (last 6 races):

Brawn 172 (+46)
RedBull 153.5 (+55)
Mclaren 71 (+30)
Ferrari 70 (+25)
Toyota 59.5 (+21)

Brawn scored 86 points in the first 6 races, RBR 42.5, Toyota 26.5, Ferrari 17, Mclaren 13. I think it would be fair to say the field closed the gap after the summer break and RBR did score more points in the final six races.

[elf341]

Season end (last 6 races):

There were 7 races after the summer break starting with the european grand prix on Aug 23rd '09.

But you caught me out I was using the new points system!

(edit: using the old system, Brawn would have 57 vs Red Bull's 55)

[Gaz.]

Season end (last 6 races):

There were 7 races after the summer break starting with the european grand prix on Aug 23rd '09.

But you caught me out I was using the new points system!

(edit: using the old system, Brawn would have 57 vs Red Bull's 55)

Ah yes, I misread the date of the Valencia round, although RBR still outscored Brawn in the last six races

[SiLo]

Pretty sure Brawn's advantage was also nowhere near what Mercedes had at the beginning of this year either.

[Morteza]

Formula1.com

[Morteza]

Formula1.com

[turbof1]

I moved the last bunch of non-technical car related posts to the team thread. Remember, the topic is restricted to conversation about physical parts of the car. It's domination of other dominating cars, worshiping it into the 7 heavens and a cute picture of hamilton on his wheel display are to be posted in the team thread.

Sorry to be so harsh guys, normally we are less stringent after the season ended, but next year we need to deal again with a lot of off-topic posts in the W06 thread based on what agony it was this year. Better to set the right direction now so the discomfort is a whole lot less next year.

[trinidefender]

http://s8.postimg.org/mqfn781h1/W05.png

Formula1.com

What a load of ****. All of the teams have the intake to their radiators ducted so that there is nothing else in the way of the radiators apart from a straight duct from the front of the sidepods to the radiators. After the radiators have an almost clear shot to the rear end of the car and you can see on all the cars that most components have fairings over them with the exhausts being probably the only things being exposed.

The ducting and seal around the radiators is what creates a pressure difference between the front and rear of the radiators and increases the airflow through them.

I think this was posted because GA is trying to pinpoint specific parts of the car that somehow make the Mercedes so quick instead of admitting that it is in fact the whole sum of well designed parts that make the car quick. But of course that is boring to say as it is much more interesting to say the Merc is so quick because of these few things. If it were that simple then every car would be that quick, the designers and engineers aren't idiots.

[wesley123]

Picking single things as a golden bullet was also something that was done with the Red Bull. While it is the whole car that makes the difference the Mercedes did have a few nice "tricks".

The log style exhausts seems to be a huge advantage aerodynamically as well as packaging. The log style exhausts take up much less space in the sidepod, reducing the obstruction(as described in the (pretty much bogus) article) as well as allowing tighter sidepods.

The second signiicant thing is the single lower arm on the front suspension. The arms generally are obstructions. Having a single arm rather than two logically brings less obstruction in a critical area of the car. I think it's advantage is rather significant as it reduces the obstruction from the front wing as well as bringing cleaner air further back.

Both things named will be things that every team applies next year. mainly the single arm will be an interesting development.