Mercedes AMG F1 W04

[The_Truth]

James Allen said about Mercedes today.

Rosberg’s time was set on the first lap of a 16 lap run in the Mercedes. He will have had 60 kilos of fuel on board at the time, which is 40 kilos more (equivalent to around 1.1 seconds of lap time) than Massa’s fastest timed lap.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2013/02/j ... potential/

[Red Schneider]

From Nico's commentary that there is a bit of understeer causing unbalance I believe we can deduce that the car needs more front wing dialed in to combat understeer. This is a good thing as it means the back end is more stable causing the front to not bite as it should. The previous cars have always had too much oversteer with the latest generation front wings and the team could not run them fully until the back end were more sorted. I wouldn't be surprised if we see more rake and wing angle run to make the front end sharpen up.

I agree. My understanding of the reason Mercedes kept the BGP001 front wing for so long was that they lacked rear downforce, so adding front downforce was of no use.

I still think there is every reason to believe Mercedes will eventually turn their fortunes around... if the right people are involved.

[The_Truth]

Looking good.

Pirelli @Pirelli_Media
Fastest time on soft today = Massa (1.17.879), fastest time on medium = Rosberg (1.18.766), fastest time on Hard = Raikkonen (1.19.200).

https://twitter.com/Pirelli_Media/statu ... 1620134912

[flmkane]

This car is gonna be fast.

I'm not talking about winning races, or tyre conservation or drivability. But it will be fast.

[beelsebob]

Bear in mind, that on what appeared to be their high fuel, long run today they were loosing 0.7 a lap. That's not great, considering both the McLaren and RedBull were losing about 0.4 a lap (and in fact started faster). Don't get me wrong. It doesn't look like a bad car, but it also doesn't look like they're going to be challenging to move up the grid.

[Ferraripilot]

Bear in mind, that on what appeared to be their high fuel, long run today they were loosing 0.7 a lap. That's not great, considering both the McLaren and RedBull were losing about 0.4 a lap (and in fact started faster). Don't get me wrong. It doesn't look like a bad car, but it also doesn't look like they're going to be challenging to move up the grid.

I'll reserve tire deg issues until I see the car with further aero bits they have planned in place. W04 despite the front wing is still quite vanilla at the moment.

I also find it difficult to judge tire deg as we have no idea from the lap times what tires these teams are running! Softs are going to degrade more than medium/hards etc.


Although I do see from Nico's 14 lap run with mediums that he lost .7 per lap through the first 5 laps then it platuead to about .3 or less per lap. Some of the other runs looked worse, some better, wish I knew the tires they were using.

[AMG.Tzan]

Bear in mind, that on what appeared to be their high fuel, long run today they were loosing 0.7 a lap. That's not great, considering both the McLaren and RedBull were losing about 0.4 a lap (and in fact started faster). Don't get me wrong. It doesn't look like a bad car, but it also doesn't look like they're going to be challenging to move up the grid.

I'll reserve tire deg issues until I see the car with further aero bits they have planned in place. W04 despite the front wing is still quite vanilla at the moment.

I also find it difficult to judge tire deg as we have no idea from the lap times what tires these teams are running! Softs are going to degrade more than medium/hards etc.


Although I do see from Nico's 14 lap run with mediums that he lost .7 per lap through the first 5 laps then it platuead to about .3 or less per lap. Some of the other runs looked worse, some better, wish I knew the tires they were using.

they were using mediums!!

[liveforf1]

Id like to see them cover the back of the car in the black protective material most other teams use.

at the start of the race the car will be beautiful.
at the end not so beautiful. i can't see a problem if it doesn't catch fire.
i love this site. i get to learn.

[liveforf1]

Where are these holes you speak of...cause your image is the side of the side pod NOT the front that you are talking about and I don't see any holes

that image was in the post I responded to.

take a look at this image:

http://www.formule1.nl/media/uploads/me ... 7707.8.jpg


You can see the holes and the tape covering them down near the "energy" printing.

Ummm I see it now, look like its been patched up, maybe damage from yesterdays shunt

are lewis and nico sharing the same cars with different numbers?

[diego1960]

at the start of the race the car will be beautiful.
at the end not so beautiful. i can't see a problem if it doesn't catch fire.
i love this site. i get to learn.

And when we will have back-to-back races we'll finish the second one with sidepods that resemble roast chicken


Seriously though, in a world where appearance is deemed as professionalism from sponsors and viewers together, the car cannot afford to be anything less than perfect because that is exactly the image Mercedes wants to have in the minds of spectators. So no burned sidepods, no peeling paint or questionable finish where the body meets the floor are going to cut it. They simply need to raise their game, and I expect a big aero package at the last test that tackles both performance issues as well as the heat-coating at the back end of the W04.

Let's see if they have learned anyhting from 2012.

[copperkipper1]

Y'all crazy...

This chassis is just a test subject - They glamour it up, rough it up and put it through the paces...

Abit of of semi-burn't paint & bodywork is not a problem at all

They will have the factory nighttime cleaner solve that 'issue/problem' for them...

Just be happy the monocoque didn't get messed up in the crash on day 2 otherwise they might have ended up having to leave Jerez after 2 days and less than 30 laps.

[Nando]

From Nico's commentary that there is a bit of understeer causing unbalance I believe we can deduce that the car needs more front wing dialed in to combat understeer. This is a good thing as it means the back end is more stable causing the front to not bite as it should.

Depends on where he´s getting understeer though. Low speed corners point to setup whereas aero dependent corners are aero.

[flmkane]

According to Raikkonnnen even the Lotus E21 has balance issues. I dont find it surprising that the W04 has a bit of understeer.
It's only the first time it's really been driven after all. Much testing, development and tuning left to do. Lets not forget that Jerez has an unusual track surface too.

[atanatizante]

Nice reliability today on the new super small gearbox ...
Almost 700 km or 2 races in one day, isn`t it?
Of course, at this stage in these two first test we have a vanilla car coz it`s all about checking how reliable the car is, a car that showing very clear signs of Aldo`s input ...
Don`t worry about the burning bodywork. This will be fixed in the last test when they`ll bring the Melbourne`s aero spec. which will bring among others a new engine cover which will spot 2 "ears" (like Lotus one) next to main engine air intake.
Very interesting fact is that are rumors on other forum that those 2 supplemental air intakes are both splitted in two routes:
1.The first one is for the passive DRS (yea, they will resume with the passive DRS despite Brawn telling us the opposite), coz it could give them a benefit of 0,15-0,35 sec per lap (depending how many long straights the circuit has). They will pursue with this device knowing the fact that is very difficult to setup, coz fortunately they are well ahead in this aria both from the last years tests and the 2011 passive F-duct experience.
2.The second duct and more important one will vent both the gearbox and new wiring loom & hydraulic arrangement rumored that was brought by Aldo`s knowledge at Ferrari that was causing Lewis accident, unfortunately.
Now both KERS and batteries unit are cooled by the small vertical slit near the tube at the entrance of the sidepods air intakes. Therefore hot air from the second duct and this one will be routed, like McLaren does now, through a vertical slot in the near vicinity of the lower rear wishbone blowing hot air and acting like a skirt for the plume not to split over the central part of the diffuser ...

[diego1960]

How do you know what kind of updates they will bring? Do you have inside info?