Mercedes GP MGP W01

[djones]

Apparentmy MS has changed he seating position.

Presumably for WD. Any info on this?

Whatever it was it seemed to help in the wet.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Gibells

You can see that line ends where the aperture of the hole actually starts.
Under the car with those two slits, were they there in Bahrain?

[gibells]

Gibells

You can see that line ends where the aperture of the hole actually starts.
Under the car with those two slits, were they there in Bahrain?

Sure, but I don't see how that makes it one hole. Just one hole mounted on another hole. Ferrari got around it by joining all the gills together. Surely the slit should run all the way into the gill?

[marcush.]

Scarbs story makes me think agaain:

my point is simple:what is there to find in terms of weight in the front ?A nose cone ,a wing 4 wishbones ,2 trackrods ,two pushrods a steering rack with servo ,mastercylinders and pedalbox plus steeing column and a steering wheel plus a bunnch of cables.... plus two wheel assemblies ..+ driver and the firebottle
Counting up the pieces my believe is that the forward weight bias is close to 35 % towards the front without resorting to ballastplacement I´d estimate.

Really, how on earth could you guess that??

mate ,of course you are right .. I just put a wild and extreme guess forward and hoped for someone in the know to jump at it ..well ,did not happen.

making a lot of assumptions weight wise I tried to actually calculate the weight distribution and come to the conclusion that only considering the main masses (gearbox ,engine,driver torso,driver legs front footbox-i did assume front and rear corners weighing the same ,wing assemblies crahstructures ,tank to level out or be placed near CG or erasing effects of each other )the bias is indeed to the rear but more like a 44/56 split assuming you got 45 kg of ballast still to be positioned.
what can be seen is :you could with 45 kilos of ballast to shift alter the weight distribution between 41/59 to 48/52...which is quite a range...
of course if you got more ballast to play with you could actually achieve those extreme weight shifts or even more..

with the last years cars in need of front bias ,you can safely assume that there was not much scope for reducing weight to the max in the front...as you needed all the weight you could get anyways forward.this must have turned around now ,and with less load on the front of course there is scope for weight optimisation..

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Gibells

I think it will most likely be an "interpretation" of what is allowed. And I bet Brawn checked this before sending them out.

The Merc was looking very racy through some sections of the track. AND correct me if I'm wrong, but did I spot some oversteer? Yes it was inclement weather conditions, so i dont know how much that can change the cars behavior.....

Also can anyone tell me if those slit under neath the car were there in Bahrain?

[horse]

I think Brawn is doing a great job of highlighting a stupid loophole in the rules. By running that tiny slit up the whole sidepod you could probably make all sorts of chimneys and other supposedly banned things under this set of regulations. They need to close this loophole me thinks.

[dren]

[dren]

I can't see that they've made the hole for the starter any smaller. Seems a bit sneaky to me. Also, that slit from the exhaust hole to that shark gill doesn't go all the way, therefore has to be described as 2 seperate holes. Would not be surprised if they get into trouble with the stewards because of these 2 things.

I'm guessing the slit is for thermal expansion of the part?

EDIT: Ok I understand what they are doing, disregard my statement.

[Just_a_fan]

I can't see that they've made the hole for the starter any smaller. Seems a bit sneaky to me. Also, that slit from the exhaust hole to that shark gill doesn't go all the way, therefore has to be described as 2 seperate holes. Would not be surprised if they get into trouble with the stewards because of these 2 things.

Because the "shark gill" hole is defined by where it deviates from the overall surrounding surface. The slit to the exhaust vent hole starts below the surface of the surrounding bodywork and so can be said to start within the gill hole and extend to the exhaust hole.

If it's been through scrutineering then the stewards must be happy that it's legal...

[gibells]

The only way a gill could even be added is by utilising the rule for the exhaust opening. Otherwise it must be a part of the 75mm rule and have continuous bodywork. How can you argue that the gill is a part of the exhaust opening? By saying that because the slit runs to beneath the overall surface of the bodywork, it is therefore one opening? I don't know. Seems a strange interpretation.

Looks like you need to be a lawyer as well as an engineer for this lot!

[Just_a_fan]

The only way a gill could even be added is by utilising the rule for the exhaust opening. Otherwise it must be a part of the 75mm rule and have continuous bodywork. How can you argue that the gill is a part of the exhaust opening? By saying that because the slit runs to beneath the overall surface of the bodywork, it is therefore one opening? I don't know. Seems a strange interpretation.

Looks like you need to be a lawyer as well as an engineer for this lot!

Indeed so. Like I said, if they're running it then the stewards must be happy that it's legal.

[BreezyRacer]

The splitter inlets are nothing new. I saw them as slots in the sides of the splitter for the Williams cars last year at Silverstone. Also RB tried them in testing .. I think at Spa. They both didn't seem to go any further with the idea though.

Basically it's just of way of introducing a controlled charge of air under the car for the diffuser. Having a controlled inlet allows them to be more aggressive with barge boards so they can direct as much airflow as possible around the sides of the car instead of under it. That helps in theory to create a lower pressure area under the floor that much earlier in the chassis. That's moves DF forward in the chassis.

[Piv]

Apparentmy MS has changed he seating position.

Presumably for WD. Any info on this?

Whatever it was it seemed to help in the wet.

Actually I think it was only slightly damp when MS went out after the lengthy spell in the pits and was quick straightaway. I watched a couple of onboards and he was back to his old self,pushing like mad at a few corners. The fact that he made a mistake at the final corner on his hotlap (at the end of a 7 lap stint) proves he really was pushing hard. He's clearly lost none of his speed,but to me yesterday was the first time this season he seemed to have enough confidence in the car to hurl it into the corners.

They did change his seating position between Bahrain and Melbourne but I think it's more the work they did on the rear suspension during his spell in the pits that did the trick. Unfortunately the car appears to be very sensitive to even slight setup changes-as Rosberg found out-let's hope they don't go the wrong way for Quali and the race.

[WhiteBlue]

There is no way around the fact that the Merc is still only the fourth fastest car which seems to hold water in qualy as well as race trim.

This is how the betters and bookies see the cars relative to the WCC leader Ferrari:



It also impacts hugely on Schumacher's and Rosberg's odds for WDC. They have taken a nosedive like lead ducks.



Compare how things went down for Schumacher when it became clear the car wasn't competitive. One has to consider that MGP is running the team with less than 50% of the resources McLaren and Ferrari are dedicating to their 2010 teams and their 2011 car development. This is going to hurt their chances to catch up having already missed the boat on F-duct, general diffusor downforce and suspension auto levelling. My guess is that the season is already lost for MGP. They might as well focus on 2011 early to reduce their existing disadvantage of 2011 development resources. Schumacher can live with such a decision I believe. He knows what the competitors can do and what MGP cannot do.

[Afterburner]

Has i said on that time, mercedes knew they were in trouble since they started using flow vision paint, on that time people said it mean't nothing, that it was just to compare wind tunnel results, well, the results are clear to everyone. I still hope they can find some downforce and manage their weight distribution to european races and start fighting for top positions.