Mercedes W13

[AeroDynamic]

[GrizzleBoy]

These above pics are what I was asking about, where the merc seems to have the most undisturbed top floor surface in terms of harsh curvature below/around the sidepods after the undercut.

Where Ferrari and Red Bull in comparison have relatively pronounced changes of direction in the air that would be attached to their undercuts via sidepods that protrude out further into the surface of the floor.

Merc seems to have more "floor wing" surface area here that could maybe produce downforce under yaw?

[HungarianRacer]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMRyaT3WUAw ... ame=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMRyas3XEAQ ... ame=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMRybd9XwAM ... ame=medium

Impressive packaging is indeed a matter of perspective:

[bucker]

At the moment it looks like we have three aero concepts. Mercedes/Williams vs Ferrari/Hass vs everbody else. I wonder if Mercedes is on the wrong foot this time.

[mafeotul]

At the moment it looks like we have three aero concepts. Mercedes/Williams vs Ferrari/Hass vs everbody else. I wonder if Mercedes is on the wrong foot this time.

Judging the last years, and based of the quality that has come out of Brackley, i tend to believe not.

[Shakeman]

At the moment it looks like we have three aero concepts. Mercedes/Williams vs Ferrari/Hass vs everbody else. I wonder if Mercedes is on the wrong foot this time.

What evidence do you have other than the livery on the car?

I could just as easily say I wonder if Red Bull is on the wrong foot this time and I hope if I did someone would call me out on it.

[Zynerji]

With such dissimilar concepts, we are ALL wondering who got it wrong at this point...

[F1Krof]

At the moment it looks like we have three aero concepts. Mercedes/Williams vs Ferrari/Hass vs everbody else. I wonder if Mercedes is on the wrong foot this time.

What evidence do you have other than the livery on the car?

I could just as easily say I wonder if Red Bull is on the wrong foot this time and I hope if I did someone would call me out on it.

The beam wing out of RBR is definitely something. They're on the territory of double or triple mini diffusors. Whereas everybody has gone to more extreme solutions, Alpine with especially Merc has gone to a more conventional route. This doesn't mean they are wrong though, remains to be seen.

[Shakeman]

With such dissimilar concepts, we are ALL wondering who got it wrong at this point...

But is anyone getting it wrong or just different?

With such a wide variety of approaches says to me there's not one single obvious solution and just many ways to skin this particular cat.

How much worse would a faceted house brick be compared to each design? How much time difference is there in these upper body designs?

[AeroDynamic]

[HungarianRacer]

At the moment it looks like we have three aero concepts. Mercedes/Williams vs Ferrari/Hass vs everbody else. I wonder if Mercedes is on the wrong foot this time.

What evidence do you have other than the livery on the car?

I could just as easily say I wonder if Red Bull is on the wrong foot this time and I hope if I did someone would call me out on it.

The beam wing out of RBR is definitely something. They're on the territory of double or triple mini diffusors. Whereas everybody has gone to more extreme solutions, Alpine with especially Merc has gone to a more conventional route. This doesn't mean they are wrong though, remains to be seen.

... Though I doubt there's anything special in the RB18's flow field that'd make it's unique beam wing uncopiable or unviable for others... I don't think they'd have showed it before the Bahrain test If it was something uber special...

[Zynerji]

With such dissimilar concepts, we are ALL wondering who got it wrong at this point...

But is anyone getting it wrong or just different?

With such a wide variety of approaches says to me there's not one single obvious solution and just many ways to skin this particular cat.

How much worse would a faceted house brick be compared to each design? How much time difference is there in these upper body designs?

There can only be 1 "perfect" solution to a set of circumstance.

Every solution other than that will simply cap earlier in development.

We won't know probably until race 14-15 of whose path is longest.

Enjoy the show!

[Shakeman]

The beam wing out of RBR is definitely something. They're on the territory of double or triple mini diffusors.

How are they acting as diffusers and not wings?

[Shakeman]

Enjoy the show!

No amount of aero development can beat having someone managing the show...

[DChemTech]

With such dissimilar concepts, we are ALL wondering who got it wrong at this point...

But is anyone getting it wrong or just different?

With such a wide variety of approaches says to me there's not one single obvious solution and just many ways to skin this particular cat.

How much worse would a faceted house brick be compared to each design? How much time difference is there in these upper body designs?

There can only be 1 "perfect" solution to a set of circumstance.

Every solution other than that will simply cap earlier in development.

We won't know probably until race 14-15 of whose path is longest.

Enjoy the show!

We're not dealing with properly conditioned linear systems here
There can certainly be many solutions that yield equivalent results.