Mercedes W13

[PlatinumZealot]

How about upsidedownpods? Any takes on why this path hasn't been taken in the past decade or so? i.e. why would they not want this on last years car?

For an extreme Jelly mould Red Bull did this with RB7. For the radiators tucked into the chassis that has been a Mercedes trait in the hybrid regs along with their long wheelbase and it seems Mercedes really cranked up tucking the radiators with the jelly mould sidepod for these new regs.

I am noticing it now, but the car in Barcelona was the same underneath the skin if the side pods! Mercedes simply used a bigger cover over it and did well not to remove them in plain sight.

The outwash is massive when I look on it from a slight side angle, and the immediate downwash after the crash structure is also incredible.

[Shakeman]

I would really love to know more about the development process at Mercedes.
Some hypothesis:

1: strategic use of a big bunch of resources last year to ensure this initial phase is devoid of any budget cap, novel concept with tons of thought.
2: Risky bet onto a new concept in a timeframe well within the budget cap phase, so maybe much promising but lacking a lot of refinement.
3: They are so good they can unzip their pants and do the CFD version of the **ck helicopter, didn't need so much as a try as to get to THE groundbreaking avenue.

For sport's sake, I hope it's the second, but Mercedes have a history of long term strategic maneuvering, don't they?

The ability to shrink the sidepods down has probably been in development some time and not necessarily 2022 specific. This would've worked just as well in previous year's rules and fits with Merc's tight packaging philosophy.

[PlatinumZealot]

Should a mandatory crush structure device be used as the aero solution? Much like with Ferrari's halo mounted mirror winglets one could argue that this must not be allowed and if Brackley were to purse this design the crush structure element has to be redesigned to remove any aero solutions as presented at this time.

The frontal volume of the side pods has always been free for interpretation of mirror mounts and other sharp radiused bodywork.

For mirror mounts and flick ups sure but not for the wing like element attached to the crush structure towards the back. That exposed structure is no longer the sidepod and while it serves as the mirror stay and benefits from liberties from the front it is very much debatable if it can benefit from the same liberties for a volume that is neither part of the sidepod not of the crush structure.

Short memories because this is what Ferrari did in 2017 and all the cars followed.

[AeroDynamic]

[JonoNic]

Anyone seen the on-board of the front wing? That's quite a bit of deflection (movement) near its top speed.

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[mkay]

It's not looking too good on track at the moment. Lots of correction, even in a straight line.

When will Merc throw in the towel if they can't get it to work?

[SiLo]

It's not looking too good on track at the moment. Lots of correction, even in a straight line.

When will Merc throw in the towel if they can't get it to work?

Day 1 of the second test and they have a fairly big update to check works. I know I'm a pessimistic fellow but this one takes the biscuit.

[PlatinumZealot]

As for the testing I have yet to watch it.. But guys remember this thread is about the hardware on the car, so we gotta try limit the testing talk to hardware related things. We are not sure if the twitchiness is down to the side pods. Very likely not. And twitchiness is good at this stage! It's day one.

[NathanOlder]

How difficult is this to copy?

Why would anyone want to copy?

Why don't you just answer what he's asking rather than replying with that ? Or you not understand his question ? Obviously he is asking because if this car turns out to be the fastest, other teams will look at the possibility of copying and doing something similar. So Postmoe was asking how easy this could be done.

A few people have put their opinion forward to try and answer his question already.

[JPower]

It's not looking too good on track at the moment. Lots of correction, even in a straight line.

When will Merc throw in the towel if they can't get it to work?

The W12 looked horrible throughout testing. I don’t think it means anything.

[Avtandil]

The frontal volume of the side pods has always been free for interpretation of mirror mounts and other sharp radiused bodywork.

For mirror mounts and flick ups sure but not for the wing like element attached to the crush structure towards the back. That exposed structure is no longer the sidepod and while it serves as the mirror stay and benefits from liberties from the front it is very much debatable if it can benefit from the same liberties for a volume that is neither part of the sidepod not of the crush structure.

Short memories because this is what Ferrari did in 2017 and all the cars followed.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... _FP1_1.jpg

https://imgr1.auto-motor-und-sport.de/R ... 768794.jpg

Very different solutions that leave much more wiggle room from a legal point of view, unlike the current design in question.

[NicoS]

How difficult is this to copy?

Why would anyone want to copy?

Why don't you just answer what he's asking rather than replying with that ? Or you not understand his question ? Obviously he is asking because if this car turns out to be the fastest, other teams will look at the possibility of copying and doing something similar. So Postmoe was asking how easy this could be done.

A few people have put their opinion forward to try and answer his question already.

thanks for answering my question, You could have left out the personal attack bits.

[sunny1304r]

At the end of the 1st straight Sainz hit 316km/h where Russel hit just 288km/h, so Mercedes is clearly sandbagging.

[JPower]

At the end of the 1st straight Sainz hit 316km/h where Russel hit just 288km/h, so Mercedes is clearly sandbagging.

No one is sandbagging. Its testing.

[F1Krof]

At the end of the 1st straight Sainz hit 316km/h where Russel hit just 288km/h, so Mercedes is clearly sandbagging.

I wouldn't say. I'm watching Russel drive, it is very lethargic and quite bumpy on the straights! To me it looks like they cannot push.