Mercedes AMG F1 W03 (pre-launch speculation)

[dren]

Perhaps it was a driver recommendation?

[Mr.S]

Most of the people are giving ridiculous & way too optimistic reaction. Look missing 33% of testing is huge. Haug says their car was ready,what have they to hide??

Mercedes will have lesser time to sort out set-ups,lesser track time for upgrades & to sort out reliability issues.

I am still non-committal about the sidepods. We need to sit it diagonally from a height to see how big the undercut is & how sleek the sidepods are. Ofcourse it is a STEP up from W02 but how much is the question???

I am non-committal about the exhausts. So far away the velocity will be quite less however big area they blow. Not sure,maybe this is good.

No proof of any Hg related stuff. I really wanted that Outlet in the Nose like RBR.Sad to not see it. We have not even seen the FW properly so cant comment.

The Front Wing seemed very high off the ground,dont know about flexing...

[timbo]

I can't wait to see the car in its actual press photos or the actual launch spec-especially interested on those sidepods; which were probably inspired by the MP4-26 sidepods.

Mp4-25 IMO

[dren]

Haug said the car was early for the test bed, which is for mechanicals.

The car hasn't even had a proper test session yet...just wait.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

So there doesn't appear to be any special bifurcated inlet at the nose step. Nor do the sidepods look to be innovative. So much for all that speculation.

Lets see what lies underneath these side-pods during the course of the season, but 2 things stick out for me.

1. Firstly how very similar this car is to the W02.
2. The wheelbase extension.

We know the problems Mercedes suffered with tyres and the imbalance issues that resulted in that. There was a time loss linked to this mainly in the race, but also hampered the car through qualifying as its set ups where orientated for one or the other.
We also know the cooling issues they endured for pretty much the whole season. Those gills costs Mercedes time, I cannot substantiate how much time but there are figure being bandied around the internet from 0.2 upwards due to drag.

The results of a grainy picture shot tell me Mercedes have continued with the concept of the W02, ironed out the flaws of the W02 and added a new cooling arrangement which allows lower radiators and a deeper undercut. This is Bob Bells handiwork in evidence for me. Stick to what you know, and refine the hell out of it until you can do no more.

Finally the exhaust. Mercedes utilised the side blown technique last year, and didnt have a the best of EBD's once set up to run mid season(it solved some of their tyre heating problems though). So the current arrangement as far as I can tell blows either beam wing or brake ducts, lets wait on this before commenting further.

The sum of all these is that the W03 should be a step forward.
My initial reaction is muted. This car doesn't scream to me as a winner, the major flaw with W02 was its lack of highspeed downforce in comparison to the top 3.
Without seeing the cars attitude in highspeed corners I cant comment. But it doesnt look like much has changed....

@ Ray
You think Upods??

[raymondu999]

I see where you're coming from - possibly. But I meant the *idea* in that you wanted to get the sidepods abnormally low in the airflow so that the beam wing had more clean air

[BorisTheBlade]

The longer I look at it the more I think they have an RB8 style exhaust. The black heat protection could be because of tightly packaging the exhaust into the sidepods. And they do indeed look pretty low.

[Mr.S]

You are right Dren,maybe they were just getting basic stuff working. On the on-board lap I thought it was a constant speed / aero test looking at the steering wheel.

I just hope Mercedes find those 4-5 tenths of a second atleast needed to compete for podiums & is possible race victories. I dont think they can make more than 1 second with just modified SidePods & Front Wing F-duct. Tyres are more grippier & everyone will come with new stuff like RBR's huge vent at the break point of nose to gain furthur time.

MSC is already 43. Maybe 8th WDC is too much but atleast 1 More Race Win is what I definitely want to see.

[Owen.C93]

Most of the people are giving ridiculous & way too optimistic reaction. Look missing 33% of testing is huge. Haug says their car was ready,what have they to hide??

Mercedes will have lesser time to sort out set-ups,lesser track time for upgrades & to sort out reliability issues.

Besides the extra time in the factory they can also get a much better tyre model using the old car.

[MercAMGF1Fans]

I'm gonna be an idiot now..

Can you tell anything about the "complicated suspension" from that video?

[diego1960]

Guys come on, missing the first test surely isn't the end of the world, especially since it was a calculated decision announced 2 months ago and not a panicked reaction. I for one am optimistic that the car will be closer to the front than W02 was, but how much we will not know until at least 3-4 races are past. It will be a huge step forward however if for once since the Mercedes rebranding, thing work as they are supposed to, and the factory doesn't have to lose precious developmental time sorting out issues such as cooling. I also expect to see better craftmanship, more attention to detail as last year the car was awful in that area, possibly in the region of Virgin/HRT.

Mr. S, I too want to see MSC on the podium again more than anything, but maybe he has to renew his contract for one more year for that to happen. I reckon he will if the car proves good enough to fight for podiums, and due to the regulation changes he finds himself closer/ahead of Nico.

Mercedes may have an advantage here as their car is simply an evolution of W02, which means that many areas are the same and the team already know how well they work, instead of Ferrari who might ultimately have a better car but find themselves in real mess from what I've been reading as many components are not yet known 100%. Anyway, lets pray that they got it right this year and the team can take a significant step forward, without worrying about Lotus and FI for a change.

[Richard]

No.

The videos and long lens pic tells us it has a stepped nose and 4 wheels. Any more detail is akin to staring at tea leaves. Its fun though!

[strad]

Check out the wheel and the seating position...People forget how uncomfortable these cars are..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTr-G6F1 ... embedded#!

[Leon]

[Schulteiss]

No.

The videos and long lens pic tells us it has a stepped nose and 4 wheels. Any more detail is akin to staring at tea leaves. Its fun though!

HUGE fun. It has been said again and again, and than again, that here will be no FW F-duct, whatever we said, the interlinked suspension became a miracle rideheight system with 15 kilos of mercury, The W03 has been imagined to be 1s faster than than the RB 7 was last year, people don't believe what they see, etc, etc, now, before the car has even ran 1 lap in anger, frustration settles in, because there are no visible signs of the car being a rocket ship. This car was meant to be a solid car, that is not one second behind the leader,and hope is, it can have a fairly regular shot at podium finishes. That is what the team has stated, and set out for themselves as a goal. If its a little faster, good for them, and even better for us.

By the way I prefer tits to tea leaves.