Mercedes W13

[organic]

New front brake-duct outlet of the Mercedes W13 this weekend

Source: Tobi Greuner [@Tgruener] on Twitter

Looks like a 3D printed (plastic?) part?

[organic]

[GrizzleBoy]

So now that Mclaren have gone the Red Bull side pod shape, Mercedes are now the only Mercedes powered team with zero pods and the only Mercedes powered team not running a RB/Ferrari shaped side pod.

Have we seen in speed traps yet that the other teams are achieving much higher top speeds than Mercedes due to reduced drag from their new sidepods?

[OO7]

So now that Mclaren have gone the Red Bull side pod shape,

No they haven't.

[GrizzleBoy]

So now that Mclaren have gone the Red Bull side pod shape,

No they haven't.

Not going to bother arguing.

Let's just say there are no merc powered cars apart from merc that have zero pods.

Are there any notable gains in top speeds yet and if so are they higher than mercs?

[djones]

I think we should judge comparative straight line speed at Spa when there are teams not getting low drag downforce from illegal floors and everyone has to add more actual wing etc.

[OO7]

Not going to bother arguing.

Let's just say there are no merc powered cars apart from merc that have zero pods.

Are there any notable gains in top speeds yet and if so are they higher than mercs?

Mercedes have always (with the W13 post launch update) been unique in their sidepod concept, so it wouldn't be accurate to state that other teams have distanced themselves from the Mercedes concept, when those other teams had never adopted it in the first place. We can say that Williams migrated from their small sidepod design to a larger Red Bull style concept however.

[ringo]

So now that Mclaren have gone the Red Bull side pod shape,

No they haven't.

Not going to bother arguing.

Let's just say there are no merc powered cars apart from merc that have zero pods.

Are there any notable gains in top speeds yet and if so are they higher than mercs?

The Mcalren sidepods are not like the redbull pods though.
Theyre basically the same with a mix of ferrari with a downwash slope at the back.
I was expecting big broad slabs of sidepod, only to visit the mcalren thread and see that was a gross exageration.

[Shakeman]

So now that Mclaren have gone the Red Bull side pod shape, Mercedes are now the only Mercedes powered team with zero pods and the only Mercedes powered team not running a RB/Ferrari shaped side pod.

Have we seen in speed traps yet that the other teams are achieving much higher top speeds than Mercedes due to reduced drag from their new sidepods?

Correlation does not imply causation.

[GrizzleBoy]

Don't really want to argue the semantics, I'd just like to know whether the merc powered teams that have either moved away from the small sidepod concept or completely copied what is seen to be a much less draggy concept, have seen any large gains in their top speed deltas or not.

Given that mercs small side pods are blamed by some for making them draggier, it would just be nice to know whether the other merc powered teams have gone faster after enlarging theirs.

[Mchamilton]

So now that Mclaren have gone the Red Bull side pod shape,

No they haven't.

Not going to bother arguing.

Let's just say there are no merc powered cars apart from merc that have zero pods.

Are there any notable gains in top speeds yet and if so are they higher than mercs?

No other team has had sidepods like Mercedes at any point

[bosyber]

https://i.imgur.com/NNaSXVg.png

New front brake-duct outlet of the Mercedes W13 this weekend

Source: Tobi Greuner [@Tgruener] on Twitter

Looks like a 3D printed (plastic?) part?

Looks a bit like sintered metal, definitely some kind of metal I think, it might be titanium, but yes 3d printed I'd say.

[cplchanb]

No they haven't.

Not going to bother arguing.

Let's just say there are no merc powered cars apart from merc that have zero pods.

Are there any notable gains in top speeds yet and if so are they higher than mercs?

No other team has had sidepods like Mercedes at any point

same with 2014 until now... no team had the merc nose until 2017... they did just fine... no team had zero rake until the pink mercedes.... they did just fine too...

[ringo]

Don't really want to argue the semantics, I'd just like to know whether the merc powered teams that have either moved away from the small sidepod concept or completely copied what is seen to be a much less draggy concept, have seen any large gains in their top speed deltas or not.

Given that mercs small side pods are blamed by some for making them draggier, it would just be nice to know whether the other merc powered teams have gone faster after enlarging theirs.

I dont think any other team have done what Mercedes have. Mercedes intepretation is very extreme and only they have experienced what works and doesnt work with it. The other merc powered teams have ordinary sidepods that were not as broad as redbull's and ferrari's. But aston martin have never had slim pods, and their perfromance is virtually unchanged even when using redbull's designs.
Williams are yet to find out what is gained from the redbull design. But they too did not have extreme pods like Mercedes.

What is telling is that Mercedes have never come out and said their sidepods were the
cause of any concern with drag or performance.

I think we will have to wait until the team comments on it.

From the data so far, it looks like the wings have a bigger role to play with the drag.
The floor downforce gives credit for them to make the wings smaller. But the winge more so than the sidepods are driving the bulk of the drag.

[thechainrule]

New front brake-duct outlet of the Mercedes W13 this weekend

Source: Tobi Greuner [@Tgruener] on Twitter

Looks like a 3D printed (plastic?) part?

Wow! Surely that is for mockup purposes only and not meant to be functional beyond a few laps. Based on the seam going up the left side, it looks like that was printed on and FDM printer! Low tech by F1 standards.