napoleon1981 wrote: ↑25 Jun 2022, 16:58
My point was, if the floor needs to be reinforced there and it solved all their issues, they would have done so by other means. They had plenty of time to do so.
You give the Mercedes the credit for not being too stubborn to refuse to add 10kg to their floor?
I dunno, Red Bull were happy to present a
very overweight car (15-20kg overweight?) at launch to make sure they included all the measures to minimise porpoising in the car, likely including a stiff and heavy floor (since "minimising porpoising while retaining performance" was obviously the key to the regulation set as Pat Symonds has said), it is unclear if minimising porpoising was a design priority for Mercedes in the same manner.
Then having not prioritised a stiff and heavy floor initially (nor a compliant suspension with plenty of travel for that matter, which Red Bull and Ferrari also prioritised and realised would be important!), I wouldn't put it past Mercedes to be too stubborn to immediately change tack.
It seems Mercedes have been equally hesitant to add either a stiff floor or a compliant suspension to their car, despite that being the approach of the leading cars. [The Red Bull obviously has other measures to minimise porpoising too (like the front & rear suspension geometry, the less ride height sensitive tunnel geometry, the double outer bargeboard, the bib spring, the ice skate etc), since it's a multifaceted problem, measures which Mercedes seemingly failed to include in their original design.]
Quantum wrote: ↑24 Jun 2022, 11:11
To the point where James Allison said they physically could not push the rear suspension any higher without having a total rear overhaul.
In that case that would be a total failure at the conceptual design stage, given that "minimising porpoising while retaining performance" was known to be the key to the regulations!
But I don't believe for a second that the rear suspension does not allow a higher ride height. Aston Martin with the same rear suspension said they indeed did raise their rear ride height significantly to avoid porpoising with their A-car.