Mercedes AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+

[ferkan]

There are several explanations for this, but it's either Ferrari generating less drag, or Merc not running full Q3 power mode. Hamilton said he changed nothing from Q2, Wolff said they used Q3 mode in fact, so they are making sure competition stays clueless about their PU potential.

Did you read Mark Hughes on Motorsport Magazine? He said that Lewis didn't run his ultimate qualifying performance in Q3 (worth about 2 tenths) because they thought they had a pace advantage. This is corroborated by the fact that Vettel said it seems like Mercedes has lost abit of qualifying performance while on the other hand, Lewis has said that their "party mode" is now the strongest it's ever been.

So Williams and FI didn't use it either?

[Vanja #66]

Did you read Mark Hughes on Motorsport Magazine? He said that Lewis didn't run his ultimate qualifying performance in Q3 (worth about 2 tenths) because they thought they had a pace advantage. This is corroborated by the fact that Vettel said it seems like Mercedes has lost abit of qualifying performance while on the other hand, Lewis has said that their "party mode" is now the strongest it's ever been.

Read it. Hughes is respectable and long standing journalist, but what he wrote is still speculation. I'm more inclined to believe Wolff on this one than Lewis. Wolff is always downplaying Merc's performance, but so far I don't remember him giving false information to the press. Lewis is always playing games, on the other hand.

[DiogoBrand]

I don't think you'd want your diffuser to stall. It would mess up entire flow under the car, including barge boards and front wing, leading to instability in braking.

I fail to see how it could happen in a predictable manner. When going at high speeds, there is a tendency for the rear to squat, lowering the AoA of the floor and therefore making it even more difficult to stall. Also as you said, it would create massive instability when braking.
Sometimes it seems to me that after the F-Duct, people started thinking that all aerodynamic devices can be predictably stalled to increase top speeds. I remember when Ferrari had their flexing rear wing and there was a lot of people saying that it was an attempt to make the RW stall, when in fact the reduced AoA it created actually made it more difficult for it to stall than normal.

[godlameroso]

Well the Mercedes has a little too much downforce, you'd think it's easy to take some off via trimming the wings, although that may influence things negatively. Perhaps they're stuck with a draggy car because they have too many interrelated aero pieces, that trimming them to reduce drag could lead to too much downforce lost. This ensures the car always qualifies at or near the front, on the downside the drag makes it not the best race car. Luckily their engine advantage covers most of the drag penalty. End result is Mercedes is likely to stomp everyone in qualifying but be quite a bit closer to the other two in the race overall.

Mods feel free to move this as it's a bit off topic.

[DiogoBrand]

Well the Mercedes has a little too much downforce, you'd think it's easy to take some off via trimming the wings, although that may influence things negatively. Perhaps they're stuck with a draggy car because they have too many interrelated aero pieces, that trimming them to reduce drag could lead to too much downforce lost. This ensures the car always qualifies at or near the front, on the downside the drag makes it not the best race car. Luckily their engine advantage covers most of the drag penalty. End result is Mercedes is likely to stomp everyone in qualifying but be quite a bit closer to the other two in the race overall.

Mods feel free to move this as it's a bit off topic.

I wouldn't be surprised if their car has a lot of drag. Over the last few years their cars have had a lot of serrations, split surfaces and complex aerodynamics, all of which tend to create many vortices, which in turn increase drag. I'm really not sure what benefit comes from such complicated aerodynamics over simpler and cleaner solutions, but perhaps due to their higher power, drag was not a major concern. With Ferrari seemingly doing a good job both in terms of aero as well as power, I hope you're right about their car not being as strong in race, at least it would provide some interesting fights. But in my opinion, even though Australia isn't the best place to evaluate the car's traits, they still seemed to have significantly stronger pace than everyone else.

[F1Krof]

I don't know how you came up with this wild speculation. Two different cars with totally different aero solution and you can conclude by comparing a photo of a Ferrari & a Merc how big their corresponding Rear Wing's AoA is? Come on guys, AoA does mean more downforce/lift in principle, however they way they work and the way they react differs from car to car.

Merceceds said themselves that they opted from more downforce for Aus GP. This doesn't mean "we have opted to increase the AoA of the Rear Wing". There are dozens of pieces and different configurations that need to be tweaked for the desired effect, not just the Rear Wing.

From the picture, the AoA of the Ferrar's rear wing seems greater, however it doesn't mean it that it will generate more downforce, you don't know how the air will flow to the the wing, it is different to that of the way Mercedes manipulates the air around to hit the Rear Wing, therefore you cannot conclude that one has more downforce/drag than the others solely based on AoA and some topspeed traps, which are irrelevant if you consider the Acceleration Time to reach that top speed.

[JasonF1]

Did you read Mark Hughes on Motorsport Magazine? He said that Lewis didn't run his ultimate qualifying performance in Q3 (worth about 2 tenths) because they thought they had a pace advantage. This is corroborated by the fact that Vettel said it seems like Mercedes has lost abit of qualifying performance while on the other hand, Lewis has said that their "party mode" is now the strongest it's ever been.

Read it. Hughes is respectable and long standing journalist, but what he wrote is still speculation. I'm more inclined to believe Wolff on this one than Lewis. Wolff is always downplaying Merc's performance, but so far I don't remember him giving false information to the press. Lewis is always playing games, on the other hand.

What I mean is Lewis did use the qualifying mode but they didn't wrink out everything out of that engine as Mark Hughes said.

[muramasa]

Ballasts on the monocoque, an area below driver's leg
[CORRECTION: see Mr.G's post and my reply to it below]

https://www.as-web.jp/f1/355198?all



(at Melbourne)

[ScrewCaptain27]

Via AMuS:

[Mr.G]

Ballasts on the monocoque, an area below driver's leg

https://www.as-web.jp/f1/355198?all

https://cdn-image.as-web.jp/2018/04/041 ... 80x856.jpg

(at Melbourne)

Where is the balast? The black prisms are some electronic devices filled/coated by some type of insulating material...

[muramasa]

Ballasts on the monocoque, an area below driver's leg

https://www.as-web.jp/f1/355198?all

https://cdn-image.as-web.jp/2018/04/041 ... 80x856.jpg

(at Melbourne)

Where is the balast? The black prisms are some electronic devices filled/coated by some type of insulating material...

Ah that's right, thanks for pointing out. "Ballast" is what the article says and I just posted without thinking much (coz the author is an ex-benetton mechanic, but I forgot he's quite off the mark recently..), but come to think it's obviously wrong and just doesn't make sense.

[Mr.G]

Ballasts on the monocoque, an area below driver's leg

https://www.as-web.jp/f1/355198?all

https://cdn-image.as-web.jp/2018/04/041 ... 80x856.jpg

(at Melbourne)

Where is the balast? The black prisms are some electronic devices filled/coated by some type of insulating material...

Ah that's right, thanks for pointing out. "Ballast" is what the article says and I just posted without thinking much (coz the author is an ex-benetton mechanic, but I forgot he's quite off the mark recently..), but come to think it's obviously wrong and just doesn't make sense.

May be the author ment "balast" in the meaning "some stuff"... however teams use some kind of very dense metal and usually have special mounting places with multiple connections to make it possible "shift" it for better balancing...

[Big Tea]

Where is the balast? The black prisms are some electronic devices filled/coated by some type of insulating material...

Ah that's right, thanks for pointing out. "Ballast" is what the article says and I just posted without thinking much (coz the author is an ex-benetton mechanic, but I forgot he's quite off the mark recently..), but come to think it's obviously wrong and just doesn't make sense.

May be the author ment "balast" in the meaning "some stuff"... however teams use some kind of very dense metal and usually have special mounting places with multiple connections to make it possible "shift" it for better balancing...

Is it possible that it actually is a balast resistor? There is some heavy current flowing there.

[PhillipM]

No..

[scarbs]

Ballasts on the monocoque, an area below driver's leg
[CORRECTION: see Mr.G's post and my reply to it below]

https://www.as-web.jp/f1/355198?all

https://cdn-image.as-web.jp/2018/04/041 ... 80x856.jpg

(at Melbourne)

That looks like a bag-tank. Perhaps the auxillary oil tank, repositioned from around the sides of the engine.