Mercedes AMG F1 W03 (pre-launch speculation)

[PlatinumZealot]

Yea but its not just that they took the wrong decission, Ferrari obviously did the same, they also didn't manage to get it working as Ferrari did. So even if the short wheelbase had been good they would still be to slow.

proof of short WB on the Ferrari? I didn't really notice that.

[spadeflush]

[raymondu999]

The photo's hardly conclusive though. The angle of the cars to the camera itself skews the perspective

[spadeflush]

Agree but i couldn't find anything else on the subject.

[raymondu999]

Look at the front right endplates for example. Half of the Ferrari's endplate is visible; while it's invisible on the McLaren.

[spadeflush]

Look at the front right endplates for example. Half of the Ferrari's endplate is visible; while it's invisible on the McLaren.

gotcha...so is there any way we can obtain the actual numbers regarding every car's wb? sorry if this is off topic

[Coefficient]

The photo's hardly conclusive though. The angle of the cars to the camera itself skews the perspective

I think you're being deliberately obtuse here. As long as you scale the tyres in each picture the same you can get a reasonable visible representation of the other dimensions of the cars, wheelbase included. It won't be millitmetre accurate but who cares for the purposes of this discussion. The images in this example serve the purpose well enough for us to be able to tell who went long and who went short.

[Richard]

The pictures are stretched to ensure all cars have the same dimension from the front endplate to the centre of the front axle. That dimension is mandated in the rules, and the reference points are roughly in the same plane so that reduces parallax problems. The rear wheel is also in the same plane.

I agree that parts of the car that are not in the the endplate plane will be subject to parallax problems. So the rear wing endplate is probably a little bit suspect, but the rear overhang is also mandated so we don't need to worry about that.

Yes, it is not an accurate image for construction purposes, but it is good enough for saying "these cars seem to be shorter and those cars seem to be longer".

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Right, but the angles will wreak havoc trying to ascertain who has what.

I'm looking particularly at the Renault R31 and Red bull RB7.
The R31 has a similar wheelbase according to the picture....
Yet I have read numerous pages where the red bull is a long wheelbase and the R31 a shorter wheel base.
The pictures don't back this up....

Althought the W02 is easily the shortest car.

[raymondu999]

The photo's hardly conclusive though. The angle of the cars to the camera itself skews the perspective

I think you're being deliberately obtuse here. As long as you scale the tyres in each picture the same you can get a reasonable visible representation of the other dimensions of the cars, wheelbase included.

My point isn't that the scale isn't the same; as the images have been scaled accordingly. But my beef is that parallax will skew the images a lot. Again; look at the front wing endplates - some like the MGP or McLaren are perfectly aligned; and some like the Ferrari or Red Bull are not.

[Richard]

The end plates on the far side of the car are irrelevant. Referencing between mandated reference points in the same plane avoids parallax problems for comparison in that plane.

[chillah]

what about the f1 2011 racing game?

in the menu you can see that the cars have different wheelbases.
On which data are those models designed?

[aleks_ader]

According on picture you also could calculete with geometry (Pythagorean theorem) a quite precise WB distances!

[aleks_ader]

what about the f1 2011 racing game?

in the menu you can see that the cars have different wheelbases.
On which data are those models designed?

Hmm i dont think so if that will be more relevant like picture? Who knows? On google i couldnt find any corect data about tolerances from real car dimensions...

[munudeges]

Nonetheless, it does show how strikingly shorter the Merc's wheelbase was. We're still none the wiser about why that was, but no matter, I doubt whether Willis in particular will allow that to happen this year. Surely what they come up with for this season can't be as bad as what they've come up with for the last couple, and in the latter days of Honda? The delay in testing is certainly a sign that things have been 'rearranged' IMHO.