Mercedes W13 Speculation Thread

[mclaren_mircea]

Hello. Im opening the discussion about Mercedes next year car. I hope it is accepted because except speculation on W12, the topics about speculation on the new cars were already opened at this date (19 December). Maybe because they carried the same chassis to 2021. Regarding the new car I think it has to be a good car, because I was amased that the Red Bull car had so many aero updates over the entire season compared to W12. Those resources had to be invested somewhere, I hope that here in the W13 car. Enjoy the thread until the official launch.

[jjn9128]

Knowing how superstitious F1 teams are, will it be called the W13 or will they skip straight to 14?

[El Scorchio]

Knowing how superstitious F1 teams are, will it be called the W13 or will they skip straight to 14?

True. Or the W2022, or similar

[Scorpaguy]

They might just use the moniker, "Hamilton Express". My suspicions are that Toto assumed his mill alone would be enough to get Ham the WDC and that Merc have a big jump on RB in 2022 development. 2022 race #1 (if it happens...covid), could be a sobering event for the rest of the field. The "spicy Brazilian" could be mated to an even spicier chassis.

[Morteza]

Knowing how superstitious F1 teams are, will it be called the W13 or will they skip straight to 14?

Remember Red Bull's RB13?

[Stu]

13 is only an unlucky number in western cultures (and even then those that evolved from an ‘English’ background) in many other cultures it is considered a ‘lucky’ number.

[jh199]

Well, we know that Mercedes decided not to spend their tokens on the W12 and we know that they were pursuing a new, even slimmer nose. Although the new regulations are quite different, do you all think Mercedes will debut this slimmer nose on the W13? It'd be pretty unfortunate if they dedicated all that time to redesign and retest this slimmer nose for it to never see the light of day.

[Ryar]

Well, we know that Mercedes decided not to spend their tokens on the W12 and we know that they were pursuing a new, even slimmer nose. Although the new regulations are quite different, do you all think Mercedes will debut this slimmer nose on the W13? It'd be pretty unfortunate if they dedicated all that time to redesign and retest this slimmer nose for it to never see the light of day.

The reason why Mercedes was going for slimmer nose, was to keep the Y250 vortex highly energized and uninterrupted (this from Allison in one of his videos). With that now gone and with the aiflow structures going to be different with new regulations, I doubt if work done on previous regulations nose is going to help carry forward. It's ideal for designers to have a clean slate while designing a new car for radically new regulations, instead getting boxed in a previous idea.

[cooken]

Well, we know that Mercedes decided not to spend their tokens on the W12 and we know that they were pursuing a new, even slimmer nose. Although the new regulations are quite different, do you all think Mercedes will debut this slimmer nose on the W13? It'd be pretty unfortunate if they dedicated all that time to redesign and retest this slimmer nose for it to never see the light of day.

The reason why Mercedes was going for slimmer nose, was to keep the Y250 vortex highly energized and uninterrupted (this from Allison in one of his videos). With that now gone and with the aiflow structures going to be different with new regulations, I doubt if work done on previous regulations nose is going to help carry forward. It's ideal for designers to have a clean slate while designing a new car for radically new regulations, instead getting boxed in a previous idea.

I agree. Doubtful we ever see the intended W12 nose really.

RE: bolded part. I think this is exactly the reason they didn't spend the tokens. Instead of continuing to pour resources into the new nose, they cut their losses. They probably saw fairly early on that on whatever trajectory the design was on, it would end up with a negative return on investment. In other words with limited man hours and capital, they would end up with a net performance loss compared to spending the resources somewhere else on the car.

That kind of resource management will be a big part of success in the budget cap era, as much as any technical prowess.

[SiLo]

What are the rules like for the front wing? Does a slimmer nose effectively get you more surface area for the wing main planes?

[Ryar]

What are the rules like for the front wing? Does a slimmer nose effectively get you more surface area for the wing main planes?

I don't know much of technical side, my hunch is, with the whole of bargeboard area gone and with the new winglet to remove the wake of the front tyre, there is less opportunity/headache to play around with the front of the car. Previous generation (older than 2019) had all sorts of complex wing elements to sort the airflow and avoid the wake of the front wheels, coupled with complex barge board structures. A lot of that work was to create vortices to seal the floor and create downforce. With the regulations providing a lot more opportunity with the floor and far enhanced ground effect, there would be more focus on channeling the air underneath the car, than the side like up until now.

I think we are going to see more of this.


With two variants of front wings available, I guess more teams would go for this.


In one of the recent articles, Pat Symonds who is also part of the group managing the 2022 regulations, said, they are taking strong stance against any design/trick to move the dirty air to the side of the car and instead, want it go above the car and that too with at a defined length by which time the dirty air should leave the car from above. They seems to trying their best to avoid any kind of dirty air affecting the car behind.

[Holm86]

W13 confirmed, they're early with this one

[Big Tea]

W13 confirmed, they're early with this one

https://youtu.be/YI4PqFhvvaE

Expect More claims of Mercedes having a start on everyone.

[BlueCheetah66]

Would most teams not be firing up the engines earlier than usual because the engines are frozen from the start of the year

[Big Tea]

Would most teams not be firing up the engines earlier than usual because the engines are frozen from the start of the year

I was kidding as we have heard these claims from day one of the new engine regs and they are first to release vids again.