Mercedes: Team Thread

as the merc designer elliott had commented on interesting red bull side pods i thought this would be ok i nthe context of posting on the merc page in referene to thier "no side pods stuff"

red bull: very small side pod entrance with forward under element moved right out. (more on under element anon) the body work is post likley largely empty beind the radiators which can't be all that much bigger than mercs?

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this image really shows the action to move air. Clearly with "no" sidepods there much less drag but all of this air is being directed down and out over the side of the floor. The twin barge boards set up is doing the same. if this air isn't getting outwashed by the body work how will merc get enough vortices to seal off the floor?

 

also a question comes to mind is safety.

this car design would have had to pass the side impact test already to race?

 

Don't think it would impact the tub, so should be good.

The big thing for me is just simply cooling. How the hell would that work? Especially at elevation.

 

well the shot without covers does suggest they can keep the same inlet and still reduce radically if it is a thing. you are right though, at attitude and the hooter places the thing must be marginal hence the slits they have already shown off.

 

just reading the banter above, the more dummies that can be put out there, till the last minute real car and aero is used next weekend, the better for the team with a good formula. With 3 races before the first in Itay there are a lot of points to be gained with a good start to the season. Merc have traditionally been a little slow at the start of a new season, in the era of no budget caps that was not too much of a problem. Still concerned how well/effectively the caps can be policed. With Honda staying in the game, I don't know how F1 expects to police Honda the car manufacturer's spend, nor Mercedes in a similar manner. Put simply, the F1 can't have that right to walk in, audit, inspect premises etc. of a Corporate entity. So what stops aero work, engine design being done in those environments, that is not charged, other than integrity?

 

Integrity left Formula One years ago

 

I hope side-pods vanishing isn't going to be a thing.... It's going to ruin that Ferrari.

 

In a sport with less rules (historically) that was not necessarily a problem, now it can be. Honda chose to stay in F1 because of the success of Verstappen and the way that can be used to drive up sales. With so much money involved it is big business and we all know what that means. That said, the budget caps may not be a perfect solution but probably level the field to a degree.

 

If Merc does turn up with mega slim sidepods then that would sort of explain why they turned up at the first test with sidepods that looked very similar to previous years!

Sky's coverage starts Thursday (Tomorrow) at 7am UK time!!! Can't wait!!

 

Well holy ****.. that thing is interesting.

 

Now comes the question...Have Merc just pulled a blinder, and the rest will be scrambling to catch up, or is this going to be one of those things that takes a while to get working at it's best?

 

Goodness me.

I hope that doesn’t make them dominant.

 

What I like atm is that we dont have 20 cars that pretty much look alike. We've got a few different approaches, And what would be nice is if none are the clear best and all excel under certain conditions.

Hey... I can dream!


Btw... I have no idea what the zero pod thing means for F1 or if it's going to the the next big thing for all teams, but it's great to see some creativity in the design of these things.

 

It looks like the top of sidepod still there now as a wing and imo that's going to be appealed right off.

The side pod still exists but is just as expected tight in and there's basically slats everywhere to achieve cooling.

 

May just be there to meet the requirements for bodywork dimensions (would have to look at that) or something to simply mount a wing mirror to, since they can't use the halo.

 

yeah, though the question is that its a now an aero wing which i thought were banned.

 

So... working out whether it's worth copying it before deciding whether to protest it...?

 

Won’t be doing so “ YET “

 

someone's whispered in his ear that they can easily replicate.... chancers.