Mercedes W13

[Hoffman900]

I'd love to see some CFD around that floor area with the waves, and also the double kick diffuser as well.

These are the details that make correlation really hard for anyone not Mercedes, even for RBR / Ferrari without having to build a wind tunnel model to assists.

[pantherxxx]

The floor on the W13 looks way more complex and detailed than any other car we've seen so far. I thought such solutions are banned by the current regs to make the air more clean. The question is. Did Mercedes find a loophole or the other teams are not showing their real floors yet?

[Just_a_fan]

If theyre creating outwash with front of the sidepod, then shrink wrapping as much as possible further back would reduce the chance of any of the turbulent outwash flow from reattatching to the bodywork. Then of course, clean high energy air onto the top of the floor is always going be beneficial.

The "barge board" outer turning vane will create a strong vortex that pulls air down from above the floor, the turning vane behind the mirror will do the same. The nett effect being to create downwash over the shoulder of the sidepod and down on to the exposed floor. The two vortices are rotating the same way, so will merge/reinforce each other if they meet on the floor edge. That will all help push air out sideways along the side of the car, I guess.

The clean air flow between the mirror stalk and the sidepod top will flow nicely down the sidepods for sure. The turning vane to the outside of the mirrors is cranked heavily outwards, theres no way the vortex that sheds is propogating down the sidepods. More likely crashing into the rear wheel surely.

Vortices are good at following curved surfaces so it'll likely "fall off" the shoulder and down on to the floor. There'd be no benefit if creating a strong vortex just to send it in to open air and then in to the rear tyre. That's just drag for no benefit.

[djones]

For some reason, I was expecting gills on the side pods.

I know nothing about aero. But it does look very cohesive and refined even at this early stage.

https://serving.photos.photobox.com/040 ... fc6592.jpg

The panel in the photo could be replaced with a panel with gills.

Good point.

[Hoffman900]

https://i.imgur.com/JKFW9H4.jpg

The floor on the W13 looks way more complex and detailed than any other car we've seen so far. I thought such solutions are banned by the current regs to make the air more clean. The question is. Did Mercedes find a loophole or the other teams are not showing their real floors yet?

Likely some of both, or that Merc has the computing power / engineering chops to make that floor work where the others struggled to.

We haven't really seen a real floor from Mclaren yet. I believe this is the first "race spec" we've seen of anyone. And RBR is still a guess.

[NicoS]

Nice angle on the floor waves
https://i.imgur.com/WDT9QD0.png

Can't remember who said it but yeah the vanes under the floor look like shark teeth
https://i.imgur.com/gr66bkP.png

Hi, As a total newbie, and a non aero expert, I need to ask you to elaborate so I can understand.
The "nice angle on the floor waves" that you refer to: what do you mean by nice, in relation to what function?
What would be a "not" nice angle?
I would really appreciate if you can offer me some more insight regarding your observation.

We're describing the angle of the image to look at the detail of the floor. I'm a newbie too

But I can tell the image provides another perspective of what the air is travelling along at a faster rate during race speed?

OK understood, Thank you. You are not referring function. I appreciate your reply.

[JPower]

The floor on the W13 looks way more complex and detailed than any other car we've seen so far. I thought such solutions are banned by the current regs to make the air more clean. The question is. Did Mercedes find a loophole or the other teams are not showing their real floors yet?

The only floors we've seen that aren't very plain launch spec are Alfa and Mercedes.

[Emag]

https://i.imgur.com/JKFW9H4.jpg

The floor on the W13 looks way more complex and detailed than any other car we've seen so far. I thought such solutions are banned by the current regs to make the air more clean. The question is. Did Mercedes find a loophole or the other teams are not showing their real floors yet?

Likely some of both, or that Merc has the computing power / engineering chops to make that floor work where the others struggled to.

We haven't really seen a real floor from Mclaren yet. I believe this is the first "race spec" we've seen of anyone. And RBR is still a guess.

From McLaren, I think we can expect the double kick diffuser, because most of the covered area was towards the back. As far as the "curls" at the front, I don't think they will have them, at least not at this stage.

[Mchamilton]

The "barge board" outer turning vane will create a strong vortex that pulls air down from above the floor, the turning vane behind the mirror will do the same. The nett effect being to create downwash over the shoulder of the sidepod and down on to the exposed floor. The two vortices are rotating the same way, so will merge/reinforce each other if they meet on the floor edge. That will all help push air out sideways along the side of the car, I guess.

The clean air flow between the mirror stalk and the sidepod top will flow nicely down the sidepods for sure. The turning vane to the outside of the mirrors is cranked heavily outwards, theres no way the vortex that sheds is propogating down the sidepods. More likely crashing into the rear wheel surely.

Vortices are good at following curved surfaces so it'll likely "fall off" the shoulder and down on to the floor. There'd be no benefit if creating a strong vortex just to send it in to open air and then in to the rear tyre. That's just drag for no benefit.

It could be used as a barrier to direct the upper front tyre wake outward. Imo theres too much outwash on the vane for the vortex to follow the sidepods. But i dont have cfd eyes unfortunately lol

[Henri]

So different wonder which philosophy is better ?

[FittingMechanics]

So different wonder which philosophy is better ?

Everyone does us disservice by using these fake renders. Mercedes looks nothing like the render.

[Emag]

I don't know why Mercedes gave us those renders though. It's okay to get rid of certain details, but it's literally a completely different car compared to the real thing.

[PlatinumZealot]

The nose won't block your vision but the fact that you can't see the tip of the nose is the challenge. I guess the drivers have the big endplates to at least see their opponents front wings, though I doubt if they can see their own end-plates at all.

When was the last time a driver was able to see the tip of the nose ? or endplates for that matter.

I clumsily worded that. I meant it is more challenging now since the nose projects out further.
For the end-plates they are taller than the old ones so it might give the impression that a driver can see them, but I doubt it.

[cplchanb]

I have loved looking at all the new cars and it's been great to see the range of innovations etc.

I think the fact that this car looks simple and refined could be a big concern. It's the opposite of 'The Homer' that Ferrari has launched where they have thrown loads of things at the car that do not actually seem to really fit together.

This just looks assured, like they know it will will work without any desperate gimmick, although there are some very nice little details on the front of the floor etc. Although we have no idea until Q3 in Bahrain where the real speed is.

we all know what overengineering does... the 2013 to 15 mercs were FAST yet did not have the crazy louvers, slats and trickeries other teams wasted their time and money at for little gain. It was only in 2016 when there was diminishing returns did merc go all out with their sawtooth bargeboard. Look at 2017... the ferrari had so many innovative designs yet merc mopped them all up and it took until 2020 for them to finally do the high inlet design...

Merc essentially had a 2 year head start. They were already designing this car in 2019 while most were still trying to catch up to them...

[Holm86]