Mercedes AMG F1 W04

[ell66]

]

This looks awful compared to McLaren's approach. The holes that are larger than expected, roughly cut and not well defined. In general in this pic, the back of the car looks less refined and more bulky. I expect some black heat resistant areas to cover the back end of the exhaust and gearbox in the coming days.

its a launch car, how you can overly criticize small details like that at this stage is beyond me.
The car looks good, was never going to be radically different with next year on the horizon, the rear end looks very interesting, hopefully its a fundamentally solid car that can be developed well.

[diego1960]

McLaren's was a launch car too, yet the attention to detail was much better. I expect even more than that from Mercedes. As for the "radical" part I hope that they have an ace up their sleeve, because Red-Bull and Ferrari look really good and say that the car will be really different come Australia. McLaren is up there too.

[xDama]

I thought Merc dropped the second half of 2012 to develop the car for 2013/2014? I hope they went 95% for the 2014-car, because at first glance this looks like a very simple evolution of last years car... Rather disappointed with this one.Can't help the feeling that the developing-proces of Mercedes is 5x slower then most other teams these days.

But let's wait and see until the first test, but I'm not impressed at this stage.

[Owen.C93]

Interesting little cutout in the corners of the diffuser.

http://www.formule1.nl/media/uploads/me ... 828.62.jpg

[Vasconia]

]

This looks awful compared to McLaren's approach. The holes that are larger than expected, roughly cut and not well defined. In general in this pic, the back of the car looks less refined and more bulky. I expect some black heat resistant areas to cover the back end of the exhaust and gearbox in the coming days.

its a launch car, how you can overly criticize small details like that at this stage is beyond me.
The car looks good, was never going to be radically different with next year on the horizon, the rear end looks very interesting, hopefully its a fundamentally solid car that can be developed well.

Because the Mclaren was also a launch car and it looks much more elaborated and refined.

I feel disappointed with the first impression. There are not great changes apart from the nose, the rear part is much less refined than other cars, and the exhaust doesn’t appear integrated as it happens with the Mclaren or the RB09. In general the car doesn’t seem very coherent and refined.

Obviously it is very early to judge de car but as I have said the first impression doesn’t make feel very positive.

Anyway I want to see more detailed photos about the front wing and the suspensions, my goodness at least they should have solved the degradation problems!.

[Pandamasque]

Mercedes has run its new W04 2013 Formula 1 car at the Jerez circuit in Spain. The W04 has already attracted a lot of attention with its use of interlinked suspension, driver line up and revised team management. Its formal launch is later today.

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/news ... -at-jerez/

What is this all about?

[k.ko100v]

Now the Devil is in the back The rear on launch seems to be very different with very big potential. IMO If everything goes to plan, some peoples gonna eat their pens.

[Ferraripilot]

Something is going on at the back end we're not seeing yet.

I've also noticed Mercedes have their exhaust pointed -as someone pointed our earlier- far more directly at the gap between the tire and diffuser. Compare this to F138 who have it pointed more directly to the tire. Mercedes floor also strikes me as suspect that they have something going on back there.... interesting.

[Matt Somers]

Tyre Squirt Slot ahead of the rear tyre seems as if it has no slot... hoping for more pics of this area over the coming days as without the break in the floor it's illegal (ala RBR debacle in Monaco last year)

[Morteza]

EDIT: Do I see a vertical opening here?

[dren]

Something is going on at the back end we're not seeing yet.

I've also noticed Mercedes have their exhaust pointed -as someone pointed our earlier- far more directly at the gap between the tire and diffuser. Compare this to F138 who have it pointed more directly to the tire. Mercedes floor also strikes me as suspect that they have something going on back there.... interesting.

The whole sidepod looks designed to send the exhaust straight to the gap between the wheel and diffuser. Brawn stated the rear was designed with a lot of aero potential to unlock. I expect to see a lot of development there before the first race.

Last year it seemed like they were concentrating the diffuser flow towards the center and the mini diffuser exit. This one turns almost 90 degrees at the ends like the Lotus last year. This to me is a good sign.

[Matt Somers]

Mercedes has run its new W04 2013 Formula 1 car at the Jerez circuit in Spain. The W04 has already attracted a lot of attention with its use of interlinked suspension, driver line up and revised team management. Its formal launch is later today.

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/news ... -at-jerez/

What is this all about?

Mercedes use a form of interlinked suspension that works on heave and roll whereas the other teams systems only deal with heave. It was employed on the W03 so nothing new and worked out to be counter intuitive with DDRS and the Pirelli balance, with Pirelli tyres that allow a larger contact patch and no DDRS it may work much better....

[Artur Craft]

The clearance from the coanda exhaust to the floor looks huge in that picture

The coke bottle looks a bit weird too. Doesn't seem to have the smooth amalgamation into the gearbox area the other cars have. Could just be that angle though.

I also got that impression, and from other shots too.

To me, it seem's the rear is more neat and, theoretically, should be giving more downforce there. However, Mercedes front wing remains very low downforce/drag. All other teams seems to have downforce levels not very far between, in the front wing. Mercedes is the only with such notable low df fw.

The reason for it, I guess, is there everybody have neat and tight rear end, nowadays. So Mercedes doesn't have an edge on that, they are, rather, just playing catch up with everybody.

If I had to predict a pace for this car right now(and I know how silly it is to do so just by looking at launch photos of the cars, but anyway) I would put it just ahead of Force India and behind RBR, Mclaren, Ferrari, Lotus and Sauber.

[flmkane]

Is it just me or does this thing have U-sidepods

[Bredd]