McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[Shrieker]

Is it only me, or does the diffuser on Button's car look different? Maybe they using the FEE today?

Well well well... Now let's see. There's one shot (Scarb's one, where he drew big red arrows to point the exhaust), then another where the exits take a 90 degree turn to the right, and the one you posted now. A total of 3 different configs.

Are there any more ?

[myurr]

Interesting to compare the crash structure. On the Red Bull they've tried to optimise the beam wing by lowering the crash structure to create a gap above it.

On the McLaren they have a raised the crash structure that connects to the beam wing but allows for air flow over the diffuser. Visually the beam wing also looks slightly lower on the McLaren, although that's subjective and the photo's are from a different angle.

I wonder if the side pod design on the McLaren that is aiming to bring more quality air to the beam wing is allowing them to sacrifice some of the downforce on the beam wing (by letting the crash structure interfere) with the trade off that they can work the diffuser more. So same downforce as the other cars from the beam wing, rather than more, but with more from the diffuser?

[zgred]

[myurr]

Those are some amazing shots! That wake on the side of the crash structure is incredible to see. That beam wing / diffuser combination seems quite potent.

Any similar shots for other cars? There's this one of the Renault where the flow on the side of the crash structure doesn't look nearly as clear or steep:

[AbbaleRacing77]

Theyre probably collecting data on different configurations so they can make there cfd models a little more accurate for this car. That way they can come up with more conceptual aero solutions that actually work when implemented to the car.

[JaymzVsTheWorld]

They have been testing with and without the rim deflectors. Probably testing the effect it has on brake temperatures.

Here's another picture of the exhausts http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/u ... 011_21.jpg

And here's one with fire to show the direction of them!
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/543 ... a484_o.jpg

(Thanks to Anonymous for posting them at Austosport forum)

That's not fire, it looks like chrome from a backwards turning exhaust.
Soooooo much speculation in all these pages I just read. 90 percent I would say is complete rubbish from know-it-all's.

I spotted the fake exhausts when first watching the live stream of the launch, so I wouldn't be surprised if some other parts at the launch were fake, but people yapped on and on for ages, really made for some pointless reading.

On the testing... I see McLaren have tested a couple of exhaust set ups, still not sure about the front exit holes that are located beside the drivers bum. It looks as if it could be functional but unless we see a thermal image, or hear it from McLaren then we won't really know.



Edit; For the people thinking that the 26 is ugly, you can't be much of an F1 fan! I think all the F1 cars are lovely. Even the slowest F1 car is fast! the Formula itself is the beautiful thing.

[raymondu999]

They have been testing with and without the rim deflectors. Probably testing the effect it has on brake temperatures.

Here's another picture of the exhausts http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/u ... 011_21.jpg

And here's one with fire to show the direction of them!
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/543 ... a484_o.jpg

(Thanks to Anonymous for posting them at Austosport forum)

That's not fire, it looks like chrome from a backwards turning exhaust.

Edit; For the people thinking that the 26 is ugly, you can't be much of an F1 fan! I think all the F1 cars are lovely. Even the slowest F1 car is fast!

It's beautiful engineering resulting in an ugly car

[JaymzVsTheWorld]

They have been testing with and without the rim deflectors. Probably testing the effect it has on brake temperatures.

Here's another picture of the exhausts http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/u ... 011_21.jpg

And here's one with fire to show the direction of them!
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/543 ... a484_o.jpg

(Thanks to Anonymous for posting them at Austosport forum)

That's not fire, it looks like chrome from a backwards turning exhaust.

Edit; For the people thinking that the 26 is ugly, you can't be much of an F1 fan! I think all the F1 cars are lovely. Even the slowest F1 car is fast!

It's beautiful engineering resulting in an ugly car

Agreed.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Here's an enhanced one as well.

Now that is confusing, the pipe pops all the way out and then turns back round again? bizarre :S

[Owen.C93]

Oh yeah, I think I need more sleep.

[Pierce89]

They have been testing with and without the rim deflectors. Probably testing the effect it has on brake temperatures.

Here's another picture of the exhausts http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/u ... 011_21.jpg

And here's one with fire to show the direction of them!
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/543 ... a484_o.jpg

(Thanks to Anonymous for posting them at Austosport forum)

That's not fire, it looks like chrome from a backwards turning exhaust.
Soooooo much speculation in all these pages I just read. 90 percent I would say is complete rubbish from know-it-all's.

I spotted the fake exhausts when first watching the live stream of the launch, so I wouldn't be surprised if some other parts at the launch were fake, but people yapped on and on for ages, really made for some pointless reading.

On the testing... I see McLaren have tested a couple of exhaust set ups, still not sure about the front exit holes that are located beside the drivers bum. It looks as if it could be functional but unless we see a thermal image, or hear it from McLaren then we won't really know.



Edit; For the people thinking that the 26 is ugly, you can't be much of an F1 fan! I think all the F1 cars are lovely. Even the slowest F1 car is fast! the Formula itself is the beautiful thing.

If you think there's never been an ugly F1 car, I consider you of very poor judgement on beauty. Yes, the 26 is butt ugly but probably quick so it ok, but it's still FUGLY

[adrianjordan]

I think it looks like some sort of 1930's racing plane....

Granted it does look odd from the front, but from every other angle those swooping sidepods just look beautiful to my eyes...

[Martin Keene]

What is the thing inside the outlet?

Not a clue. But comapre that image, which is a running car during testing. To this image, which I suspect was taken during the launch:



And the 'exhausts' have disappeared in the first image.

Where as this image clearly shows exhausts, but they are either turning away from or into the centre of the car, with no visible outlet.



Most odd. I don't think we are going to know McLaren's true exhaust route until race weekend in Bahrain.

Full marks for working out that EBD was still going to be a big thing and giving themselves lots of options.

[thestig84]

The 2nd picture of the straight forward out the back exhausts is not the launch plastic setup. They have been running that setup along with the other/s during this test.

[kalinka]

That exhaust configs are really interesting. Yeah, it would be good to see a thermal image, but I'm just wondering, if we have a long enough video (with sound of course) of testing, we could possible tell how many different configs they were running. I think that these radically different solutions for exhaust must sound radically different too. So anyone with a quality video+sound ?