Mercedes W13

[SmallSoldier]

I’m still in awe of how the car looks:

[Jozsusz]

Russell didn't use DRS during his lap and only 6 tenths down.
This car isn't that bad guys, don't worry.

His top speed was 307 km/h. No way that was without DRS.

Still 10kph down on Verstappen.

[SiLo]

Russell's car looking much more stable than Lewis, what are they doing with Lewis's car?

It's practice of the first race, they are potentially still trying out setups.

[shamyakovic]

Russell didn't use DRS during his lap and only 6 tenths down.
This car isn't that bad guys, don't worry.

His top speed was 307 km/h. No way that was without DRS.

Still 10kph down on Verstappen.

Russel is 29.8 and Max 29.3 first sector on their fastest laps.
Was it due to them not running their engine full beans and no drs ?

[Aesop]

His top speed was 307 km/h. No way that was without DRS.

Still 10kph down on Verstappen.

Russel is 29.8 and Max 29.3 first sector on their fastest laps.
Was it due to them not running their engine full beans and no drs ?

That means Russel was on par voor s2 en s3? Promising voor the Mercs.

[shamyakovic]

Still 10kph down on Verstappen.

Russel is 29.8 and Max 29.3 first sector on their fastest laps.
Was it due to them not running their engine full beans and no drs ?

That means Russel was on par voor s2 en s3? Promising voor the Mercs.

Yes very very close in s2 and s3

[Andi76]

I'm not convinced that this is a new floor. This is the old floor with the edge cut out. I expected to see an edge wing at least. So fingers crossed they come out with the real McCoy in the FP2 or FP3.

IMHO, there's no reason why Merc would wait so late to put their full spec car on the track.

I think we have to accept Merc is on the back foot maybe even for the opening few of races.

The definetely are. Most peoples did not want to believe it, even as it was obvious in testing already. I even stay with what i said last weekend - they got it completely wrong. Its the whole concept of the car thats wrong. Its a totally new regulary. But Mercedes took a concept that got beaten to death for many years now and went radical with this concept. But usually when such huge technical changes happen, new concepts are the ones to go with. So in my opinion, Mercedes is in serious trouble. But thats F1 - the most sucessfull team usually do not want to take such big risks. And this is the reason why every era of domination ends one day. I even think Mercedes noticed that they are in serious trouble. But there was no time left to change their concept. And thats why they went radical. But thats just my thoughts.

[chrisc90]

Where do they go though? Back to Barcelona side pods and theyve lost on on weeks worth of development and testing. Lucky to be in the midfield teams at the minute I think. What the porpoising does for reliability will be very interesting come Sunday. I believe just about every team has this sorted?

[AeroDynamic]

[SiLo]

I wonder if having MORE flow over the top of the floor at higher speed is causing the issue, vs what Ferrari are doing they potentially have less flow as the low pressure area behind the larger sidepod moves farther and farther rearward.

I am remit to say they got a concept wrong on the first day of the first race of the new regs, they still clearly have pace in the car that needs to be found.

[Henri]

Who can merc hire or get help from their engine customers to help with the bouncing ?.. because thats what holding the car back.. Ferrari look so stable and fast

[qatmix]

https://twitter.com/AlbertFabrega/statu ... srT2gn_LLQ

Max speeds

👁Mercedes

1 MAG 320
2 VER 317
3 ALO 315
4 GAS 314
5 SCH 314
6 OCO 314
7 TSU 313
8 SAI 313
9 BOT 312
10 ALB 312
11 LEC 311
12 LAT 311
13 PER 311
14 ZHO 310
15 RIC 309
16 NOR 308
17 RUS 307
18 STR 306
19 HUL 303
20 HAM 289

Looks like its not just Merc running low on top speeds, a lot of the Merc powered cars are quite a bit slower. I still think they are in trouble, but this does look quite suspicious.

[Vanja #66]

I wonder if having MORE flow over the top of the floor at higher speed is causing the issue, vs what Ferrari are doing they potentially have less flow as the low pressure area behind the larger sidepod moves farther and farther rearward.

I am remit to say they got a concept wrong on the first day of the first race of the new regs, they still clearly have pace in the car that needs to be found.

Pressure on top of the floor can't be much higher than ambient pressure, there's not much engineers can do about it with F1 regulations, even if there were no sidepods at all. On the other hand, pressure bellow is much, much lower than ambient pressure. Even in the previous short ground-effect era of F1 it was always about what's going on bellow.

I suspect Merc's current issues are coming mostly from suspension side, trying to run the car as soft as possible without losing too much in slower corners. Their car seems to be lower than others still. Maybe they were hurt slightly more than others by simplified suspension rules for 2022... They'll get on top of that very, very soon.

[AeroDynamic]

I wonder if having MORE flow over the top of the floor at higher speed is causing the issue, vs what Ferrari are doing they potentially have less flow as the low pressure area behind the larger sidepod moves farther and farther rearward.

I am remit to say they got a concept wrong on the first day of the first race of the new regs, they still clearly have pace in the car that needs to be found.

Maybe they were hurt slightly more than others by simplified suspension rules for 2022... They'll get on top of that very, very soon.

can you elaborate further on why a team can get on top of that type of issue?

[SiLo]

I wonder if having MORE flow over the top of the floor at higher speed is causing the issue, vs what Ferrari are doing they potentially have less flow as the low pressure area behind the larger sidepod moves farther and farther rearward.

I am remit to say they got a concept wrong on the first day of the first race of the new regs, they still clearly have pace in the car that needs to be found.

Pressure on top of the floor can't be much higher than ambient pressure, there's not much engineers can do about it with F1 regulations, even if there were no sidepods at all. On the other hand, pressure bellow is much, much lower than ambient pressure. Even in the previous short ground-effect era of F1 it was always about what's going on bellow.

I suspect Merc's current issues are coming mostly from suspension side, trying to run the car as soft as possible without loosing too much in slower corners. Their car seems to be lower than others still. Maybe they were hurt slightly more than others by simplified suspension rules for 2022... They'll get on top of that very, very soon.

Would there be any discernible difference in pressure above the diffuser between the Ferrari and Mercedes concept?