Mercedes W03

The hottest spot north of Havana!!! And don't you forget it!

 

––……––

 

To be fair to him, he works for a company that wholeheartedly believes in the taste of Red Bull.

 

Having seen the more recent pictures of the Mercedes, I want to take back what I said earlier about it being one of the better looking plastic-surgery stepped-nosed-jobs. No wonder they wanted to keep it in shadows.

Until they line up together, I will say only one more thing about this year's cars: they all look awful (apart from the McLaren).

 

Mercedes rumoured to have a double diffuser on their car: http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mercedes-hiding-new-double-diffuser-concept-reports/?i=2

 

please log in to view this image

please log in to view this image

Higher quality version of the top one: http://www.formula1.com/wi/sutton/2011/ded1222fe106.jpg

 

It's as if the cars are designed from the loopholes upwards these days.

 

please log in to view this image

 

hmm, so despite EBD and double diffusers being banned we still have EBD & double diffusers.

 

Cheers, that's a much better picture, can actually see how they're managing it now.

 

I think the exhaust is dragged down by the airflow under the diffuser, with the air from the outlet in the middle of the body work passing over it through the cutaway to produce the double-deck diffuser effect.

This is the magic wing that directs airflow from the inlet on the nose to the inside of the front wing pushing down the unloaded tyre during cornering.

 

Oh boy not another double diffuser, just when we thought we would get a close grid where driver skill makes all the difference . Where is Charlie when you need him. I really hope this is just worth a tenth or two if it is allowed.

 

It's looking like Ross Brawn has done it again.
This Mercedes might turn out to be a super car.

 

I'd guess it's worth a tenth max.

 

Yep, agree with that.

However, beings as loopholes are generally associated with performance enhancing technology or methods, this isn't really that surprising. It's been going on for years hasn't it?

 

"Brawn admits Mercedes not ready to win yet"

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97677

Worrying feeling the blown diffuser wasn't what gave Red Bull their pace.

 

This video illustrates how the Mercedes nose manages airflow to the front wing. I'm not sure if this is fact or just speculation on what it might be doing. For some reason it uses a Ferrari as an example:

[video=youtube;r6NiK46JTEU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ9cFis55xM[/video]

 

Scarbs has posted an hypothesis describing a system Mercedes may have developed that uses DRS to trigger a front wing stalling system to improve balance while DRS is open in corners, which would in turn improve their qualifying performances. If I understand correctly this effectively gives them an active F-duct in the front wing - active because it is controlled by the driver opening the DRS flap. Obviously, active systems are not permitted but Scarbs suggests secondary functions initiated by DRS activation are allowed. Like McLaren's 2010 F-duct, the solution runs through the monocoque so copying it, though not impossible, will not be the work of a moment and may require additional crash tests.

A lot of this was discussed last week on F1Technical.

 

The FIA has had a look at the Mercedes rear wing innovation and declared it legal.

Brilliant. Whatever an F-duct is, banned isn't it.

The other teams are now set to copy the Mercedes DRS-assisted Rear Wing F-duct (DRSARWFD).

 

Now everyones going to have to copy somehow. Look out for fatter planes on future wings