2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[dans79]

Is it possible that RB may be 'borrowing' Alpha Tauri wind tunnel/CFD time to develop?

Absolutely not, that would be an instant WCC ban, and a hefty fine as well!

[bosyber]

Yep, shared use of windtunnel and making sure there is not transfer of knowledge and CFD budget has been something that the FIA has been alert about for years now, since it started to limit CDF/wind tunnel time which lead to more sharing (recall rumours about Haas/Ferrrari, but that team wasn't subject to those rules yet which might have saved them!); with the budget cap that has to be one of the things the auditors would be looking into very closely indeed, with the added restrictions in budget they now have depending on where teams finish.

[Phil]

I’m inclined to agree with Ringo - me too think that RedBull have been underperforming based on bad setups rather than Mercede narrowing the gap. Yes, it could be down to the tires, and the updates - but RedBull just seem more hungry and willing to go further this year to win at all costs.

I’ll be happy to be proven wrong though and who knows, maybe Mercedes do have one or two things they can pull out of their bags. I also think RedBull and also Max will start to feel more pressure to perform which might provoke errors. But in order for those errors to happen, Mercedes and Hamilton (and Bottas too) need to be close enough performance wise.

[Wouter]

Yesterday night (august 3rd) something happened in Monaco that we never expected, Lewis Hamilton himself took his awesome one-off Pagani Zonda 760 LH out for a drive to the harbor to meet Samuel L. Jackson and others on a yacht.
The 760 LH is specifically designed and created for the 7-time World Champion F1 driver.
The car basically is a personalized 760 RS featuring a 7.3 liter AMG V12 producing 760HP and a manual transmission.
It accelerates from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 2.6 seconds and tops out at 350 km/h (217 mph).

[RZS10]

One of the best Zonda specs tbh

[Wouter]

One of the best Zonda specs tbh

It's great, isn't it?! And that colour!!

[mkay]

Is it possible that RB may be 'borrowing' Alpha Tauri wind tunnel/CFD time to develop?

Absolutely not, that would be an instant WCC ban, and a hefty fine as well!

How do you police this though? It's so easy to share information these days, much easier than during the days of Stepney/Coughlan, etc.

What if AT engineer just dumps "RB" wind tunnel/CFD data on an anonymised file transfer website (i.e., WeTransfer), or uses personal email/cloud accounts? Does FIA have the manpower or systems to track all information flow, or monitor adequately what is being worked on at each factory in real time?

[Marty_Y]

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... N3xwc.html

Most of this is information that I've heard before but the last bit which I've quoted below is interesting.

So, for Mercedes, it was essential that they too found significant power unit gains with their new M12E unit.

These have been delivered in a quite different way from those of Honda. We have less detail of the internal changes, but we do know that the infamous engine cover bulge on the Mercedes (and Aston Martin, below) is related to a significant part of the power increase. The bulge is to clear what is believed to be a special chamber within the intake plenum where the air which will be fed to the combustion chamber is prepared. The air in this chamber within the plenum is ‘super-cooled’.

Super-cooling is the process whereby a liquid can be cooled below its nominal freezing temperature but still remain a liquid. Some super-cooled coolant is believed to run in the walls of this chamber, making the air inside it even cooler. The cooler the air, the greater the oxygen content and the more explosive it will be when mixed with the fuel.

Mercedes also re-assessed how to better use the heat rejection of the turbocharger. “Those changes are probably the most striking when it comes to crank power and the performance of the power unit,” said Mercedes HPP boss Hywel Thomas at the launch of the W12. A new type of alloy has been used for the engine block, in the interests of greater reliability as the strains imposed by the ever-greater power year-on-year had begun to tell in 2020.

The variable length inlet trumpets – which are standard on all F1 engines and which optimise the volume of inlet air according to the load and torque demand – have been made more compact on the M12E by an ingenious snail shell-like geometry.

How these improvements have balanced out between the two power units has been a fascinating part of the competition this season. There is no definitive agreement on which is the more potent and it's close enough that differing levels of downforce chosen by each team at each circuit can muddy the waters.

In the France/Austria series of races it appeared as if the Honda had the edge. At Silverstone the Mercedes appeared to be marginally ahead. It is that close, and it will be fascinating to see how this battle plays out in the second half of this gripping season

.

[dans79]

We have less detail of the internal changes, but we do know that the infamous engine cover bulge on the Mercedes (and Aston Martin, below) is related to a significant part of the power increase. The bulge is to clear what is believed to be a special chamber within the intake plenum where the air which will be fed to the combustion chamber is prepared. The air in this chamber within the plenum is ‘super-cooled’.

Super-cooling is the process whereby a liquid can be cooled below its nominal freezing temperature but still remain a liquid. Some super-cooled coolant is believed to run in the walls of this chamber, making the air inside it even cooler.

This bit is so poorly written it makes my head hurt!

Mercedes might have found a way to cool the charge better than their opponents, but they definitely aren't Super-cooling it, as it clearly against the rules, and is actively monitored. not to mention highly impractical.

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... -06-28.pdf
Article 5.6.8

Engine plenum (as defined in line 4 of Appendix 2 to these regulations) air temperature must
be more than ten degrees centigrade above ambient temperature. When assessing
compliance, the temperature of the air will be the lap average recorded by an FIA approved
and sealed sensor located in an FIA approved location situated in the engine plenum, during
every lap of the qualifying practice session, Sprint Qualifying Session, and the race. The first
lap of the race or Sprint Qualifying Session, laps carried out whilst the safety car is deployed,
laps with a time at least 20% greater than the fastest lap of the session, pit in and out laps
and any laps that are obvious anomalies (as judged by the technical delegate) will not be used
to assess the average temperature. The ambient temperature will be that recorded by the FIA
appointed weather service provider. This information will also be displayed on the timing
monitors.

The cooler the air, the greater the oxygen content and the more explosive it will be when mixed with the fuel.

This is also very poorly written. When you cool air, you aren't changing its oxygen content (air contains more than oxygen), you're increasing its density. Your getting more of everything per unit volume.

[Marty_Y]

We have less detail of the internal changes, but we do know that the infamous engine cover bulge on the Mercedes (and Aston Martin, below) is related to a significant part of the power increase. The bulge is to clear what is believed to be a special chamber within the intake plenum where the air which will be fed to the combustion chamber is prepared. The air in this chamber within the plenum is ‘super-cooled’.

Super-cooling is the process whereby a liquid can be cooled below its nominal freezing temperature but still remain a liquid. Some super-cooled coolant is believed to run in the walls of this chamber, making the air inside it even cooler.

This bit is so poorly written it makes my head hurt!

Mercedes might have found a way to cool the charge better than their opponents, but they definitely aren't Super-cooling it, as it clearly against the rules, and is actively monitored. not to mention highly impractical.

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... -06-28.pdf
Article 5.6.8

Engine plenum (as defined in line 4 of Appendix 2 to these regulations) air temperature must
be more than ten degrees centigrade above ambient temperature. When assessing
compliance, the temperature of the air will be the lap average recorded by an FIA approved
and sealed sensor located in an FIA approved location situated in the engine plenum, during
every lap of the qualifying practice session, Sprint Qualifying Session, and the race. The first
lap of the race or Sprint Qualifying Session, laps carried out whilst the safety car is deployed,
laps with a time at least 20% greater than the fastest lap of the session, pit in and out laps
and any laps that are obvious anomalies (as judged by the technical delegate) will not be used
to assess the average temperature. The ambient temperature will be that recorded by the FIA
appointed weather service provider. This information will also be displayed on the timing
monitors.

The cooler the air, the greater the oxygen content and the more explosive it will be when mixed with the fuel.

This is also very poorly written. When you cool air, you aren't changing its oxygen content (air contains more than oxygen), you're increasing its density. Your getting more of everything per unit volume.

That's exactly why I found it interesting, it was written by Mark Hughes and published on a website that should know better.

[Just_a_fan]

Mercedes might have found a way to cool the charge better than their opponents, but they definitely aren't Super-cooling it, as it clearly against the rules, and is actively monitored. not to mention highly impractical.

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... -06-28.pdf
Article 5.6.8

Engine plenum (as defined in line 4 of Appendix 2 to these regulations) air temperature must
be more than ten degrees centigrade above ambient temperature. When assessing
compliance, the temperature of the air will be the lap average recorded by an FIA approved
and sealed sensor located in an FIA approved location situated in the engine plenum, during
every lap of the qualifying practice session, Sprint Qualifying Session, and the race. The first
lap of the race or Sprint Qualifying Session, laps carried out whilst the safety car is deployed,
laps with a time at least 20% greater than the fastest lap of the session, pit in and out laps
and any laps that are obvious anomalies (as judged by the technical delegate) will not be used
to assess the average temperature. The ambient temperature will be that recorded by the FIA
appointed weather service provider. This information will also be displayed on the timing
monitors.

The cooler the air, the greater the oxygen content and the more explosive it will be when mixed with the fuel.

This is also very poorly written. When you cool air, you aren't changing its oxygen content (air contains more than oxygen), you're increasing its density. Your getting more of everything per unit volume.

It might be that getting the air to 10 degrees above ambient isn't easy and maybe Mercedes get closer to that limit with the device within the bulge. NO idea, of course, but just thinking out loud.

As for the "cooler the air, the more the oxygen content" bit, that's typical journo rubbish. Rather than explaining it properly, they put in a throw away line to keep the editor happy with their story length. Although, it would be easy to say "the cooler the air, the denser it is so the greater mass of air that can be fed in to the engine" - at least that's actually what happens.

I do wonder if some/many of the journos writing about F1 have any technical knowledge about the sport or the science behind it.

[e30ernest]

It might be that getting the air to 10 degrees above ambient isn't easy and maybe Mercedes get closer to that limit with the device within the bulge. NO idea, of course, but just thinking out loud.

I would think that it would be easier to get to that limit given the speeds the car is going and the volume of air the engine sucks in. Fresh air would be constantly fed into that intake.

[dans79]

It might be that getting the air to 10 degrees above ambient isn't easy and maybe Mercedes get closer to that limit with the device within the bulge. NO idea, of course, but just thinking out loud.

I would think that it would be easier to get to that limit given the speeds the car is going and the volume of air the engine sucks in. Fresh air would be constantly fed into that intake.

The plenum is between the compressor and the combustion chamber, so it has highly compressed air in it. Given the ideal gas law, that means the temperature has to go up.

[e30ernest]

It might be that getting the air to 10 degrees above ambient isn't easy and maybe Mercedes get closer to that limit with the device within the bulge. NO idea, of course, but just thinking out loud.

I would think that it would be easier to get to that limit given the speeds the car is going and the volume of air the engine sucks in. Fresh air would be constantly fed into that intake.

The plenum is between the compressor and the combustion chamber, so it has highly compressed air in it. Given the ideal gas law, that means the temperature has to go up.

Oh yeah I was still thinking in NA terms... I need coffee...

[maxxer]

It might be that getting the air to 10 degrees above ambient isn't easy and maybe Mercedes get closer to that limit with the device within the bulge. NO idea, of course, but just thinking out loud.

I would think that it would be easier to get to that limit given the speeds the car is going and the volume of air the engine sucks in. Fresh air would be constantly fed into that intake.

The plenum is between the compressor and the combustion chamber, so it has highly compressed air in it. Given the ideal gas law, that means the temperature has to go up.

Yeap and thats why in my simple turbocharged roadcar it goes through an intercooler to cool it back down before feeding it to the intake