ryaan2904 wrote: ↑16 Apr 2021, 17:14
Very very impressive innovations from the Mercedes team I have to say
Bottas first and Hamilton second after Friday's free practice at Imola: Mercedes seems to have found the way back to competitiveness after the difficulties that emerged in Bahrain. On the W12 there are some new features in the diffuser: in the central part of the extractor, two ducts have been opened that were closed at Sakhier. Changes have also been made to the vertical drifts and to the flaps on the sides of the deformable structure. Do they have to start worrying in Red Bull?
Valtteri Bottas explained yesterday that he had done a lot of development work on the W12 in the simulator and that the Brackley car has a high potential that Mercedes was unable to exploit in Bahrain, but that is coming out rather strongly in Imola. Two black arrows in front of everyone after Friday's free practice prove this.
The world champion team showed up at Imola with some technical innovations that serve to make the car less unstable at the rear in an attempt to reduce the gap of competitiveness on the Red Bull RB16B that appeared in great form in the opening race.
The engineers led by James Allison, in fact, have worked mainly on the rear diffuser that has been modified according to the indications that have emerged from the difficult collective tests held in Sakhir.
The diffuser of the Mercedes W12 with the new larger bulkhead.
The last vertical bulkhead of the second row of flow diverters has changed shape: its surface has increased because in Bahrain there was a noticeable step in the upper trailing edge. Recall that the rules have imposed a rise of these elements from the reference plane of 50 mm, so the teams are working in the hope of recovering the lost load.
But the most important novelty is to be found further down and can be observed in the central part of the extractor: the W12, in fact, shows two arched air vents that open just above the wooden skid.
Mercedes W12: here is the Bahrain diffuser with the two carbon covers to the channels in the central extractor.
The unusual shape in that area of the extractor had already been noticed in the opening race in Bahrain, but in Sakhir two carbon "eyelids" had been applied to the air outlets and, therefore, the solution had not attracted particular attention, while now it seems clear that the Mercedes technicians have managed to open up a flow that is probably fed by channels dug into the bottom at the sides of the transmission.
This is a new concept that will certainly attract the attention of the other teams and that will not be easy to copy in a hurry.
On the Mercedes W12, the flaps on the sides of the deformable structure have been tilted downwards.
On the W12 we can also see the inversion of the three small flaps on the sides of the deformable gearbox structure: last year they directed the flows upwards, while this year they are curved downwards, showing how the development of the rear end has changed in order to regain the downforce lost in 2020.
The Mercedes that has landed in Europe seems to have rediscovered its world-class form...
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