Mercedes W15

[ANDY238]

[Luscion]

[ANDY238]

Miami GP: Mercedes used a lower downforce setup in Sunday's race compared to Saturday morning's Sprint.
This season changes can be made between the two races without penalty.

[r85]

Looks like it's just a modular wing element because those are the only changing parts I'm seeing. Or are there any other changes I haven't noticed?

[cplchanb]

Looks like it's just a modular wing element because those are the only changing parts I'm seeing. Or are there any other changes I haven't noticed?

yea its just the upper flap that theyre changing out.

[Stu]

More than a small tweak, from the on-board shots from the weekend they also seem to have stiffened the rear elements as well; earlier in the year you were able to see some movement between the rear flap & legality chord (possibly enough to disturb/extinguish any vortices that they are trying to create - this could be a part of the balance issues/inconsistency that they were suffering).

[Vanja #66]

With this spec there is practically no inboard vortex to form. Japan spec 2 saw this reduced already. Car was basically better than expected in the race, Hamilton was less than 4 tenths per lap away from Max after SC and kept up convincingly with Perez. Is this trully the problem they introduced themselves again, trying to be clever with rule interpretation?

[101FlyingDutchman]

With this spec there is practically no inboard vortex to form. Japan spec 2 saw this reduced already. Car was basically better than expected in the race, Hamilton was less than 4 tenths per lap away from Max after SC and kept up convincingly with Perez. Is this trully the problem they introduced themselves again, trying to be clever with rule interpretation?

Exactly what I was thinking seeing the iterations. As soon as they get more conventional flow structures the car starts to become more predictable. Another thing that in theory “cfd” may work but clearly in practice/real world doesn’t quite work out the same

[Just_a_fan]

With this spec there is practically no inboard vortex to form. Japan spec 2 saw this reduced already. Car was basically better than expected in the race, Hamilton was less than 4 tenths per lap away from Max after SC and kept up convincingly with Perez. Is this trully the problem they introduced themselves again, trying to be clever with rule interpretation?

I think that Mercedes have basically tried to make the old way of doing things work on the new cars (W13 with SIPS wing and the slump-pods mimicking the ever-smaller sidepods and addenda of previous years) and, predictably, they've failed. Annoyingly they've kept trying to make it work rather than admit defeat and move on.

[Vanja #66]

I think that Mercedes have basically tried to make the old way of doing things work on the new cars (W13 with SIPS wing and the slump-pods mimicking the ever-smaller sidepods and addenda of previous years) and, predictably, they've failed. Annoyingly they've kept trying to make it work rather than admit defeat and move on.

To be honest, I don't think it's bad they are trying different things as such. However, they've obviously lacked the full understanding of floor design even late last year and with that it was not a good decision to introduce another variable.

[SiLo]

The top flaps of Red Bull and Ferrari have always been far simpler, as if they don't want to induce any kind of vortices in that area. Maybe they figured out that less disturbed air is better for the floor, rather than trying to induce vortices in specific areas to energise flow?

[Just_a_fan]

I think that Mercedes have basically tried to make the old way of doing things work on the new cars (W13 with SIPS wing and the slump-pods mimicking the ever-smaller sidepods and addenda of previous years) and, predictably, they've failed. Annoyingly they've kept trying to make it work rather than admit defeat and move on.

To be honest, I don't think it's bad they are trying different things as such. However, they've obviously lacked the full understanding of floor design even late last year and with that it was not a good decision to introduce another variable.

Agreed that adding variables has hampered them, but it does seem like they're unable to let go of the previous successful concept. Unless they do, they'll never find the performance they should in these rules.

Maybe the alleged new floor in Imola will bring decent gains and thus show they are figuring it out, but I'm not holding my breath.

[maygun]

I think that Mercedes have basically tried to make the old way of doing things work on the new cars (W13 with SIPS wing and the slump-pods mimicking the ever-smaller sidepods and addenda of previous years) and, predictably, they've failed. Annoyingly they've kept trying to make it work rather than admit defeat and move on.

To be honest, I don't think it's bad they are trying different things as such. However, they've obviously lacked the full understanding of floor design even late last year and with that it was not a good decision to introduce another variable.

Agreed that adding variables has hampered them, but it does seem like they're unable to let go of the previous successful concept. Unless they do, they'll never find the performance they should in these rules.

Maybe the alleged new floor in Imola will bring decent gains and thus show they are figuring it out, but I'm not holding my breath.

They already introduced the new floor in Miami. In the update document they state changes to floor roof volume and floor edge detail.

[Luscion]

Shovlin saying half the upgrades were brought to Miami and the other half will arrive at Imola, the upgrades at Miami worked as expected, they know what to do to fix the handling of the car which is hampering the true performance of the upgrades and that they have quite a good thread of upgrades coming in the next 3 or 4 races.

[F1Krof]

Shovlin saying half the upgrades were brought to Miami and the other half will arrive at Imola, the upgrades at Miami worked as expected, they know what to do to fix the handling of the car which is hampering the true performance of the upgrades and that they have quite a good thread of upgrades coming in the next 3 or 4 races.

Yes, for the 100th million time their upgrades "worked" as expected in the last 3 years.