Mercedes W13

[AR3-GP]

Floor upgrades?

[De Jokke]

https://askanydifference.com/difference ... d-upgrade/

I would classify it as an upgrade

"An upgrade is said to be done when a product is replaced with a newer version of the same product. From a technology point of view, it is a replacement of hardware and software with a new or better version to improve its characteristics."

[ringo]

So it has been clarified that Mercedes did not know about the flexifloors, this seems that the FIA were behind that investigation. Again Mercedes failed to see that trick with this car. What would be good is if the FIA stamps out the flexing floors then the car will be better relative to the competition.

I was looking on the other cars and noticed that in their upgrade packages the openings of the radiator ducts have been moved forward. This is a different concept to the cars in the recent past where the inlets were moved backward into the crash structures to reduce the skin drag on the sidepods.
Now with the indented sidepods, or coanda pods, we are seeing the inlets brought forward for a less aggressive expansion over the sidepods.
Mercedes car is different, but they can also investigate extended openings for the radiators.

Because of the sidepod body work rules and the very limited range of placement for the upper side impact structure, Mercedes can't really move their side pod entry more forward, it is stuck where it is unless they change their sidepod concept.

I also see a lot of people throwing out the "Coanda" effect again, but it is not really what is going on here in this set of regulations, teams are trying to get clean and volumous flow to the beam wing while trying to outwash the air that passes under the radiator intakes. The curvatures of the supposed "coanda pods" isn't nearly as extreme as what we saw with the exhaust flow coanda effect ramps we had in 2012-2013

What's also interesting is that Ferrari are mixing their hot radiator exhaust air into that stream to the beam wing. Adding energy to the flow. Alpine is trying to this to some extent.

[Just_a_fan]

So it has been clarified that Mercedes did not know about the flexifloors, this seems that the FIA were behind that investigation. Again Mercedes failed to see that trick with this car. What would be good is if the FIA stamps out the flexing floors then the car will be better relative to the competition.

I was looking on the other cars and noticed that in their upgrade packages the openings of the radiator ducts have been moved forward. This is a different concept to the cars in the recent past where the inlets were moved backward into the crash structures to reduce the skin drag on the sidepods.
Now with the indented sidepods, or coanda pods, we are seeing the inlets brought forward for a less aggressive expansion over the sidepods.
Mercedes car is different, but they can also investigate extended openings for the radiators.

Because of the sidepod body work rules and the very limited range of placement for the upper side impact structure, Mercedes can't really move their side pod entry more forward, it is stuck where it is unless they change their sidepod concept.

I also see a lot of people throwing out the "Coanda" effect again, but it is not really what is going on here in this set of regulations, teams are trying to get clean and volumous flow to the beam wing while trying to outwash the air that passes under the radiator intakes. The curvatures of the supposed "coanda pods" isn't nearly as extreme as what we saw with the exhaust flow coanda effect ramps we had in 2012-2013

What's also interesting is that Ferrari are mixing their hot radiator exhaust air into that stream to the beam wing. Adding energy to the flow. Alpine is trying to this to some extent.

But is heat energy in that flow a good thing? It'll reduce the local air density which might be useful if you can get it on the low pressure side of a wing, but otherwise it's likely to be poor quality air.

[e30ernest]

I thought there wasn't much energy from the hot radiator exhausts compared to clean external airflow?

[wesley123]

If airflow from radiators was desired teams wouldn't make so much effort to reduce the size of the sidepod and get exits out of the way of downforce generating devices. sidepods would have been huge and radiators would have been thinner if this airflow was desired.

[Henri]

This update should help with traction out of the corners

[rickybobbyf1]

This update should help with traction out of the corners

Could this also be aimed to improve switching on the tires?

[ringo]

If airflow from radiators was desired teams wouldn't make so much effort to reduce the size of the sidepod and get exits out of the way of downforce generating devices. sidepods would have been huge and radiators would have been thinner if this airflow was desired.

Remember there are rules now that allow gills in certain areas.
This was not the case all the time.
The gills effectively reduce the volume of the sidepods, but you can also do something with the hot air under certain circumstances.
Even if it means strategic placement is all about mitigating the cons of the low quality air and keeping the pros of of smaller pods.

But i just feel its a lot of energy in that air and a lot of temperature difference with the free stream. It could be used for something.

[GrizzleBoy]

If airflow from radiators was desired teams wouldn't make so much effort to reduce the size of the sidepod and get exits out of the way of downforce generating devices. sidepods would have been huge and radiators would have been thinner if this airflow was desired.

Remember there are rules now that allow gills in certain areas.
This was not the case all the time.
The gills effectively reduce the volume of the sidepods, but you can also do something with the hot air under certain circumstances.
Even if it means strategic placement is all about mitigating the cons of the low quality air and keeping the pros of of smaller pods.

But i just feel its a lot of energy in that air and a lot of temperature difference with the free stream. It could be used for something.

That energy could actually be used to disrupt air in certain areas to make air want to flow more freely in other areas due to the lower path of resistance.

Maybe the flow out of the louvres can do different things at different speeds. Maybe RB aim their louvres curving up instead of down to disrupt flow the rear wing at high speed and reduce its performance/drag. Maybe Ferrari's louvres aimed at the beam wing do sething like that.

Or maybe nothings happening at all lol.

[SiLo]

If airflow from radiators was desired teams wouldn't make so much effort to reduce the size of the sidepod and get exits out of the way of downforce generating devices. sidepods would have been huge and radiators would have been thinner if this airflow was desired.

Remember there are rules now that allow gills in certain areas.
This was not the case all the time.
The gills effectively reduce the volume of the sidepods, but you can also do something with the hot air under certain circumstances.
Even if it means strategic placement is all about mitigating the cons of the low quality air and keeping the pros of of smaller pods.

But i just feel its a lot of energy in that air and a lot of temperature difference with the free stream. It could be used for something.

That energy could actually be used to disrupt air in certain areas to make air want to flow more freely in other areas due to the lower path of resistance.

Maybe the flow out of the louvres can do different things at different speeds. Maybe RB aim their louvres curving up instead of down to disrupt flow the rear wing at high speed and reduce its performance/drag. Maybe Ferrari's louvres aimed at the beam wing do sething like that.

Or maybe nothings happening at all lol.

RB and Ferrari aim them up because that follows some of the upper sidepod flows that run along the surface of the car. It's just the best placement of them to extract most air most efficiently.

[Stu]

interesting top view of the W13 from the pitlane

https://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/pho ... ul/261.jpg

The bodywork around the front suspension mounting points looks geared to let air spill over the nose and down to the sidepods.

This bodywork/bulge/downwards slope suspension pick-up points?

https://postimages.org/

This feature (extending the bodywork outwards to cover the inner suspension points increases the amount of down-washing the can be generated over normal suspension fairings, they have obviously seen benefits from the chassis side features run previously and want to get the effect started earlier. Most likely this increases the flow into the underfloor.

[pursue_one's]

Event:Austrian GP

[GrizzleBoy]

You can see how the reworked bodywork around the upper front suspension follows the shape of the wirror wings in that above picture.

[.poz]

What's also interesting is that Ferrari are mixing their hot radiator exhaust air into that stream to the beam wing. Adding energy to the flow. Alpine is trying to this to some extent.

This "adding energy to the flow" is a false myth.

Hot air is just hot, less dense ad so you don't want it on any wing.

blown exhaust was based on the high speed of the exhaust, not the temperature.