Mercedes W17

[Badger]

Looks like the brake duct is hidden behind that piece.


The sidepod is more sculpted than the renders, and has a "double decker" design. Reminds me of

[Emag]

There is quite a big undercut actually. Especially when you compare it to Cadillac in particular, there's a lot of visible floor there, so this car has definitely pushed the boundaries more with packaging. The floor edge looks like it has "covers" snapped on top of it. Later on I would expect it to have cutouts and slots, especially on the edge bit before the rear tire. Pre 2021 floors got very creative in that area.

On a second look, this car is definitely the most aggressive compared to what we have seen so far (Audi, Cadillac and VCARB) when it comes how tightly things are packaged and the sculpting around the sidepods. The amount of floor that is "free" beneath the sidepod is substantial.

It looks like the sidepod is designed in a way that will work together with whatever the front wing is doing and the bargeboard to keep front tire wake away. Then whatever goes in-between the front wheels, will be picked up by the front wing first and then by the suspension arms before heading downstream to a very big undercut towards the diffuser.

[geraldix]

https://i.postimg.cc/7hQq2xLR/Screenshot-4871.png

Sidepods from the actual car have quite an overbite compared to renderings

[vorticism]

Th FW elements look identical to the renders. If there is a Front Wing Adjuster System present it would have to be single-element. The pylons are mounted to the second element, not the first, which would offer structural efficiency, but prevent a two-element FWAS.

The sidepods in the photos remind me of their 2025 car. The inlet shape and the sidepod undercut look similar.

Double pushrod again. Very shallow angle on the rear pushrod versus the front.

Front geometry looks robust, ideal pushrod inclination. The upper arm is still inclined like an RB18 type car.

[FrukostScones]

Game Over:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80AERsgXEUY




sorry for the Clickbait title, but is is Quality (the video I mean and maybe W17 too ; P ). the original Game Over video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7tnSl5zBeo
enjoy preseason! : )

[sucof]

Game Over:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80AERsgXEUY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80AERsgXEUY

Would you care to stop these sensationalist comments like "game over" without any real meaning, basis, context or content at all? This is kindergarten level stuff, to be honest.

[zioture]

[emp]

And a youtube video shot from a drone by someone during the laps lol:

[Luscion]

https://x.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/2014 ... 45/photo/1

[MtthsMlw]

You can see the upwash from the floor board if you zoom in

[Lasssept]

[DAMNINice]

These are some crazy large gaps in the diffuser.
I can’t believe the ruleset allows such large openings in y/z direction.

Obviously from the side profile the diffuser will look closed but from the front these are substantial.

@aero experts: are they refeeding with more air to stop it from stalling?

[f1316]

The render is interesting because it didn’t show a downwash side pod - The Race even wrote about this being a point of differentiation for Mercedes, based on what they saw on the renders. We can see by what’s on track though that, even if it’s much more tightly packaged than last year, they clearly do still have a downwash side pod, same as all the other cars this year.

Why the renders show something different can only be speculation - doesn’t seem worthwhile to intentionally try to mislead (the other teams will have seen the shakedown, same as us), so maybe this is just an earlier (or perhaps later?) version of what they’ve been trying in the simulator.

[wiktor977]

Th FW elements look identical to the renders. If there is a Front Wing Adjuster System present it would have to be single-element. The pylons are mounted to the second element, not the first, which would offer structural efficiency, but prevent a two-element FWAS.

The sidepods in the photos remind me of their 2025 car. The inlet shape and the sidepod undercut look similar.

Double pushrod again. Very shallow angle on the rear pushrod versus the front.

Front geometry looks robust, ideal pushrod inclination. The upper arm is still inclined like an RB18 type car.

FW looks similar except for the endplates, there is no horizontal canard, there is an outwashing winglet attached to the footplate and the sensor is placed in a conventional place rather than on the second flap of the FW as it was on the renders

[yinlad]

No mousehole there on the diffuser, they wouldn't be legal in these regs.

Someone didn’t read the regs, was it you or Mercedes?