Mercedes W12

[FWandE]

Way too much livery talk in this thread. Take it elsewhere I want to hear about the hardware & development.

All of the 2021 cars so far look like modest evolutions of the 2020 cars. The most interesting changes on the W12 are that "sexy" bulge, or rather what is underneath it & the floor edges. Sadly we are not likely to see the claimed horsepower benefit from what is under the bulge until first race/quali. Nor will we see the Merc floor edge solutions till on-track testing. That said, I love seeing the photos and reading all the speculation.

...

[PlatinumZealot]

The diffuser even if concave is still supposed to start at the Rear wheel centre line. This one looks way ahead of that.
Someone suggested it is a cover to block the real thing.. Which does make sense.

175mm forward of the rear wheel centre line.

It seems a legal diffuser as you say. looks like the 7 inches. Well, the reverse lower A-arms have given the illusion that it starts way ahead of even that 7 inches then. I can't blame my eyes.

[OO7]

[El Scorchio]

Look at where the steering rack tie rods are mounted on the W12 vs the W11. If you have to change the pick up points on the tub for the lower wishbone and steering rack tie rods, wouldn't that take 2 tokens?

No idea of the specific ins and outs of what and where requires a token and what doesn't.
Do you have anything from the team saying they were spending the tokens up the front or is it nothing but speculation on your part?

Well they have not stated it directly, indirectly they have stated they did NOT change their transmission, or rear end of the car. Because they no longer have DAS, because they have opportunity to reposition the front lower control arm and steering rack, one would logically conclude the tokens were spent on the front.

Gotcha! So it is speculation, but with good reasoning- assuming they couldn't make those changes for free.

[hollus]

Livery chat in the team thread or in dedicated threads, thanks.

[Giando]

Guys, i think that they covered the entire external border of the floor with something, some kind of additional bodywork to hide what they really did in that area.

Possible?

Aswell, and again, the sidepods in the official rendering are noway near the ones in the pictures inside the Brackley facility.

[Manoah2u]

https://ibb.co/f2vvP23

Guys, i think that they covered the entire external border of the floor with something, some kind of additional bodywork to hide what they really did in that area.

Possible?

Aswell, and again, the sidepods in the official rendering are noway near the ones in the pictures inside the Brackley facility.

good point, looks like you're right

[El Scorchio]

https://ibb.co/f2vvP23

Guys, i think that they covered the entire external border of the floor with something, some kind of additional bodywork to hide what they really did in that area.

Possible?

Aswell, and again, the sidepods in the official rendering are noway near the ones in the pictures inside the Brackley facility.

Yup, they confirmed they were hiding the floor. In fact they went out of their way to say that. So either they ARE hiding the floor for good reason as they have something innovative/unusual there, or it's not significant and just a bit of misdirection to draw attention away from somewhere else on the car when they get to Bahrain...

[dodds_turbo]

Mercedes "see the POWER bulge"

Aston Martin, "Hold my *insert energy drink name here*!"

2021 is the year of super shrink wrapping on both cars.

[HungarianRacer]

Couldn't really find the best angles to compare, but here are some other changes I deemed noteworthy:
thinner sidepod inlet lower lip, bargeboard starts to curve outwards sooner & has a more continuous curvature, the floor extension the sidepod side-fence sits on curves towards the outside more.:

W11




W12

[PlatinumZealot]

https://ibb.co/f2vvP23

Guys, i think that they covered the entire external border of the floor with something, some kind of additional bodywork to hide what they really did in that area.

Possible?

Aswell, and again, the sidepods in the official rendering are noway near the ones in the pictures inside the Brackley facility.

Hmm could be a "riblet floor."
A sort of boundary layer enhancing technique.
Seen on whales and what not.
(not shark skin) but ribs.

[zibby43]

Hi-res studio shots of the car in the metal

[jjn9128]

Bodywork "bulges" were a lot less "sexy" when we called them "blisters"

[Predator]

Brightened and cropped:

[mkay]

It does look like the W12 is running more rake than the W11?