McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[timbo]

- Rear tire drag reduced

Why?
I believe sidepods have overall same width and tyre is too far behind to get any shielding effect.

[Poleman]

The top Macca was ugly and slow, so I wonder if all ugly Macca's are slow (including the 26)?

The 25 was not ugly neither is 26.Also it wasnt slow, not the fastest yes, but not slow...Slow is the HRT.Of course thats my opinion just as yours but its just that.An opinion...Everybody has one

Sorry McLaren guys (and this is my personal feeling) but this is the ugliest formula one car I've ever seen. I was really excited to see the new car but this was a bad surprise. I don't think that putting so much weight to the outer left and right can work.

I wonder what justifies an F1 car beautiful? I think if thats not beautiful its at least sweet looking piece of machinery.Hope its fast as well,looking forward to more "secrets" coming to light.

[zac510]

The damping effect of the upper surface of the sidepod reduces turbulence to small scale stuff anyway; this "tunnel" will do something similar. Sure, there may be some BL growth, but drop the sidepod upper surface far enough so that is channeled underneath and clear of the beam wing.


But I'm now also concerned about the vortex spilling off the upper nose surface during fast cornering - thats potentially going to run the length of the car now and screw up the beam wing (as well as being a low pressure zone in a very bad place).

Again, that is something not easily analysed in a windtunnel or by CFD, as its a highly dynamic event.

Might this be exactly what they want, to create a channel that will keep air over the diffuser? I'm thinking of the Toyota GT-One here.

[NoDivergence]

As the L sidepods are only the tip of the iceberg for this car, there is no way for us to tell how the MP4-26 will be like on the track. All I can say is kudos for McLaren for having the balls to do something crazy. The head project engineer for Scaled Composites just came and gave our class a lecture yesterday, some of the stuff they do is built ridiculously simply although the aerodynamic concept is not proven and is wild (only feasible in Rutan's mind). They build around the concept, if it doesn't work too well, no problem, didn't take much time to build, just redesign

[ell66]

can anybody confirm whether the car has a double floor or not?

[impaero]

Does this car have a considerably lower frontal area than the others we've seen so far?

[Pup]

This is not a switch "back" they have steering arm really low, closer to the lower wishbone.

I don't see it. Is it not integrated into the top wishbone?

OK I see them now. From the top shot I was looking at, they seemed to be missing.

[timbo]

Does this car have a considerably lower frontal area than the others we've seen so far?

I think it is a tad lower, but not considerably.

[feynman]

I recall we went throught exactly this pantomime last year, spending hours grubbing around in the dirt for a clean shot and a half-decent angle of the front suspension assembly, it took hours for a test-session snapshot from a pit balcony to turn-up and finally prove it one way or the other.
(I really think F1Technical should put the hat round and pay for our own photographer for these events, properly briefed, then at least we'd get some useful, systematic, angles to work from, and someone that knew to blow out the rest of the frame and blast some directional flash into the dark and hidden recesses).

Anyhow this year, from the few shots I've seen thus far, I'm sticking with the earlier assertion that the suspension is raked at a much lower, less aggressive angle, and this has allowed he steering arm to be reintegrated into the wishbone assembly (The high angles were the only reason it popped-out two years ago).

The arrows in that photo could just as easily be pointing at front and rear lower wishbones.

A decent angle, that's all I'm looking for here.


Also, that's last years steering wheel, isn't it? Reluctant to mention it, last time I mentioned the wheel, it degenerated into a two-page discussion about the semantics of the phrase engine braking. With the increased complexity, there may be some scope for innovation there ... or maybe they haven't made it yet.

And still last years front wing (you can tell, cos it looks identical to what ran end of last year, and cos of the big flap adjusters clinging onto it - just a note for any random BBC F1 editors reading).

[bosanac1]

kudos to mclaren they seem to be taking risk with MP4-26

[funkyfreddy]

The top Macca was ugly and slow, so I wonder if all ugly Macca's are slow (including the 26)?

Well its nearly as ugly (and radical) as the legendary mp4-18!

[RacingManiac]

Anyhow this year, from the few shots I've seen thus far, I'm sticking with the earlier assertion that the suspension is raked at a much lower, less aggressive angle, and this has allowed he steering arm to be reintegrated into the wishbone assembly (The high angles were the only reason it popped-out two years ago).

Makes sense, as they are clearly aiming for a clean flow path to the beam wing with the sidepod treatment, logically they would make sure the suspension bits up front will accommodate that as well, probably also the reason why the nose ends up being relatively low vs the others we've seen...

[Richard]

I missed the launch stream. Did they explain why they chose Berlin, why outdoors?

Shame about the ugly/useless posts. This is meant to be a technical forum to talk about what and why, to explore ideas, not to shoot people down on an opinion.

[Green Genes]

I can't see any cameras. Am I just missing them?

[feynman]

Makes sense ...

Too late for you to agree with me ... cos I've just changed my mind.

It's lower and less raked when compared to the 25, looks cleaner, but this brightened photo has a separate steering arm, just a little above the lower wishbone.


and this ...