Mercedes AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+

[gandharva]

If this is legal you can do it on whatever wheel you want next year.

[Just_a_fan]

Nothing to stop the FIA issuing a "clarification" to prevent front wheel use next should they wish.

[zibby43]

So, we can all keep following what I feel is a bit of a red herring with respect to the wheels (I mean, I doubt the significance of the impact if Merc voluntarily changed them, at least with respect to the small holes). It is intriguing, I'm just not sure how vital those small holes were/are compared to the significance of the shape of the wheel drum and the rear wheel design itself.

In the meantime, we can also look at some other reasons why the Merc was "off" in the race, especially with respect to the tires.

Interesting article from AMuS: https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... -usa-2018/

The main points. Focusing mainly on the car/hardware-related points:

1. Hamilton started on SS, instead of US, like Kimi.

2. The tire pressure increase. "1.5 PSI tire pressure puts the car at the rear 1.5 millimeters higher. That leaves only two options to balance the car again. Either you 1) increase the front of the tire pressure or 2) modify the front wing spec. Mercedes opted for the second variant. As a result, the cars were more susceptible to traffic. Behind Brendon Hartley, Hamilton lost the crucial time on Raikkonen and Verstappen."

"The Mercedes were trimmed for too much downforce and not fast enough on the straights (e.g., Vettel's ability to easily get past Bottas at the end)."

3. The pre-race water pump replacements. "The engineers referred to their driver's statements that the cars were not evenly balanced. 'It's a possible reason for the high tire usage, but it still has to be proven.'"

When the cars were weighed post-race, one side was heavier than the other. "The shifted weight balance was perhaps the result of a major repair in the morning of the race day."

4. Hamilton's floor damage. Supposedly cost 2-3 tenths per lap.

5. Strategy.

[zibby43]

As a follow-up on my thoughts above, it appears as if Mark Hughes tends to agree with AMuS.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/repo ... rix-report

Hughes:

"1) They [Mercedes' wheels] weren't banned. The FIA said that Ferrari was unhappy with the FIA's ruling that the holes in the rim were ok. Merc played it safe and sealed them. Was that critical to the tyre usage? We don't know yet. As stated in my report, the Mercs were set up with the corner weights out. That's more likely to have been the reason in my opinion. 2) Yes they [Ferrari] had an extra [qualifying] mode. But it was worth nothing like 0.6s! They ran less downforce. The Ferrari gained around 0.5s down the straights, Hamilton gained around 0.5s on the turns. Just downforce settings. Sometimes it's easy to make 2 + 2 = 5."

[Phil]

More info about the wheel hub with Matt Somerfield:

[djones]

Given the complete lack of setup time, I do not think the last race should be used as a reference for performance or tyre wear.

[M840TR]

Given the complete lack of setup time, I do not think the last race should be used as a reference for performance or tyre wear.

Everyone had a lack of setup time. Ferrari even had to stick aero testing in there. Thing is, the blocked wheel vents hurt them more than expected.

[Just_a_fan]

Given the complete lack of setup time, I do not think the last race should be used as a reference for performance or tyre wear.

Everyone had a lack of setup time. Ferrari even had to stick aero testing in there. Thing is, the blocked wheel vents hurt them more than expected.

Maybe. It certainly was not helped in any way by the car having mismatched corner weights either - caused by a last minute rebuild of the back end to change a water pump. That's the team's fault, of course.

[M840TR]

Given the complete lack of setup time, I do not think the last race should be used as a reference for performance or tyre wear.

Everyone had a lack of setup time. Ferrari even had to stick aero testing in there. Thing is, the blocked wheel vents hurt them more than expected.

Maybe. It certainly was not helped in any way by the car having mismatched corner weights either - caused by a last minute rebuild of the back end to change a water pump. That's the team's fault, of course.

Can you elaborate?

[Just_a_fan]

Maybe. It certainly was not helped in any way by the car having mismatched corner weights either - caused by a last minute rebuild of the back end to change a water pump. That's the team's fault, of course.

Can you elaborate?

It's been reported by the team that when they put the cars back together - both having had water pump changes - they didn't put the settings back on correctly. I think it was said that they were not the same across the car (left / right).

[bonjon1979]

Given the complete lack of setup time, I do not think the last race should be used as a reference for performance or tyre wear.

Everyone had a lack of setup time. Ferrari even had to stick aero testing in there. Thing is, the blocked wheel vents hurt them more than expected.

Sure but I think the point is that some teams might've happened to do better than other simply because the pressure issues etc didn't effect them so much or may've been a positive impact on the car. It's more of a random event rather than a weekend when the cars have been honed in and set-up properly. I'm not sure we can say how much the blocked wheel vents hurt or did not at this stage.

[dans79]

More info about the wheel hub with Matt Somerfield:

https://youtu.be/qrGg_eVbkkE

What a fail on their part, they used the fake news rim photo.

[Matt Somers]

No, the fail is on your behalf as you clearly didn't read through or translate the F1i.com page correctly. The 3 images shown here: http://f1i.auto-moto.com/magazine/magaz ... gique-3/3/ are, in order from top to bottom, Mercedes new wheel with the outer fins, Mercedes old design for comparison and Red Bull's wheel from inside in order to show how teams use the heatsink style bumps on the inner face, as the author probably hadn't got a Mercedes one at the time.

No-one (but you) has claimed that the lower image in that article has ANYTHING to do with the Mercedes wheel rims, you're simply trying to connect two independant articles with one another by virtue of the fact that they have a similar mating face, but perhaps fail to realise they both take their supply from O.Z. and so will obviously share a level of commonality.

If you do need independant verification of the wheel design, here you go, one that Piola took of the Mercedes rear wheel from the inside...


And for anyone else that cares, or wants to see how the fins and new spoke configuration affect the wheel rim we have this one...

[turbof1]

Matt, although I do agree putting it down as a "failure" was really uncalled for, people who will watch the video will get the impression the side by side pictures show the design with the holes on the left and without holes/filled up on the right, especially with it showing "USA" on the picture. It's nothing more than a detail, it doesn't change anything to the story, but it could give the wrong impression how Mercedes filled up the holes.

I do agree the article should been read when people reposted the picture here, which was before the video was brought out.

[Just_a_fan]

So the question is: in detail, what do the holes do? They don't connect in to the tyre volume, obviously, as that would cause the tyre to deflate. So where does the air in these holes go? Does it just get fired out through the V shaped voids at the inner end of the wheel spokes? Presumably that's why Ferrari aren't happy - they think it's for an aero effect. Actually, they probably don't think that at all and just want to make life difficult for Mercedes. Which is fair enough, all teams would do the same in a tight battle such as this season. The air going through the V at the inner end of the spokes would obviously reduce the heat going in to the outer part of the spokes and thus the tyre volume.

We know the design must be for cooling - if the intention was to heat the tyre volume, the ribs would be on the inside of the rim only, not formed as hollow ribs. The hollow rib obviously allows the cooler outside to increase heat draw from the warm inside thus cooling the tyre volume.

I suppose the worry, going forward, is that the same might be tried in the front wheels as a way of replicating the blown hub device which is, of course, purely aerodynamic in intention. Maybe that's the real driver for Ferrari - are they thinking "here's something for next year, let's push and see how happy the FIA really are. We might be able to use it ourselves next year if a solid precedent is set". Again, others will be watching carefully for the outcome and thinking the same thing.