2012 Mercedes W03

[Hampus Andersson]

Hmm interesting. According to other teams engineers they are actually blowing the beam wing and not transporting the air to the front wing.

I´m sure we will get some proper facts around this system.
So instead of getting it on earlier in corners they possibly have to turn it on slightly later but will gain in better acceleration due to even more drag reduction at the rear.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Scarbs is not believing that though and thinks it´s still the front wing. Pictures of Schumi´s car has been taken and it looks like slots under the front wing.

Here´s the vent in the rear wing,

 

[Ivan Mills]

me thinks Scarbs is just about ready to eat some humble pie,but a good effort nevertheless..heh-heh

 

[Hampus Andersson]

me thinks Scarbs is just about ready to eat some humble pie,but a good effort nevertheless..heh-heh

It´s actually the most plausible one if you read what he says. There have been rules put in place in order to not be able to blow the rear wing.

They could be stalling exhausts or sidepods or some other brilliant idea.
Bottom line is i think it will be very hard for teams to create a similar system without re-designing the whole car.

 

[Ivan Mills]

Bottom line is i think it will be very hard for teams to create a similar system without re-designing the whole car.

i find it interesting that it is after the first race AND it is still unclear what is going on with that DRS vent and how it works.
Here is a video of Schumacher(

) chasing photographers around who were trying to take pictures of the underbody of the car while waiting for the car to be lifted when he had the gearbox problem

bottom line is ,i hope you are right ..the initial theories were that there is a whole intricate system of tubings in the bodywork to deliver air wherever they need it,but im beginning to wonder if the speed with which the air travels through is fast enough to stall anything let alone the front wing,but again: i hope it is the case,cuzz then it'll be more difficult for teams to copy it

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Whatever it is, we will be sitting here being amazed at the brilliant minds in Formula 1 once again.

 

[Ivan Mills]

amen to that

 

[Ho3n3r]

Red Bull still at it:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98565

Basically:

Red Bull Racing is still pushing the FIA for further clarification about the legality of the DRS system on the Mercedes-Benz, as it continues to question whether the concept complies with the regulations.

Seriously, get over it. Really losing some credit in my opinion, going on like a broken record even though it was cleared twice.

 

[Michael Brown]

Newey upset he didn't think of it first.

It's not like the blown diffuser that worked all the time, this Mercedes wing has a huge benefit in qualy but no gain in race pace.

Edit: Horner: "I think he wanted to have a think about it and of we'll of course respect his position when he makes that clear to us in China." Hasn't Charlie made it clear in Malaysia that it's legal?

 

[Ho3n3r]

Spot-on Michael.

Apparently they want an 'official declaration' from the FIA. What Charlie is doing is saving them a lot of money, as a court case involving lawyers would just cause the FIA to again ask Whiting his opinion on the laws, and verify what he has said so far.

 

[Diego Lopez]

Newey is mad thats all. of course Renault are gonna team up since they power the RBs. The Newey vs. Brawn Episode....ermmm 2 or 3....

I think Newey has a bit of something against Brawn..especially when his Ferrari smoked Mclaren.

 

[EIF]

Mercedes will be lucky to podium this season in my opinion. Their "Super DRS" is not a game changer.

I think Haug should regrow his mustache as a lucky charm for better fortune

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Maybe the car really is much slower but the secret ducting is actually allowing them to fight for front or second row in qual.

Just imagine what it would do on a Mclaren or Red Bull.

 

[Markus Neumann]

Maybe the car really is much slower but the secret ducting is actually allowing them to fight for front or second row in qual.

Just imagine what it would do on a Mclaren or Red Bull.

Very true. Most likely it isn't Mercedes that Red Bull has in mind, but rather the fact that McLaren, having accepted the system as legal, has probably already developed it much further than RB. And as long as McLaren (hypothetically) has the system and RB doesn't, they won't get a single pole.

However, I think it's too early to judge whether the Mercedes is really that slow. In Australia, Schumacher was able to hold off Vettel rather comfortably (at least that's what he said). And Malaysia is, just like Melbourne, somewhat of an exception because of the extreme weather conditions. Last year, the Mercs were also struggling there and then, one race later, Rosberg actually led in Shanghai for quite some time.

 

[Ivan Mills]

Pirreli seem to have made a tyre that is still unpredictable to alot of teams...something they said they will do last year,and indeed its been pretty entertaining first 2races with alot of drivers falling out of the operating window and struggling to keep the tyres warm and therefore destroying them much quicker,or just struggling for pace. Mercedez is definetely one of those teams,so i will still hold jugment before we get some good dry conditions and a well rubbered in track to determine if its indeed something fundamental..such as a slow car.Besides, Mercedes have yet to try any exaust blowing on the tyres ,so its still early days imo

 

[Ho3n3r]

They do seem useless without the W/F/Q/N/P/Whatever-duct.

I really hope we get a quali soon where Merc's DRS doesn't work, so we can see where they really are. cough*jinx*

 

[Ivan Mills]

but u gotta hope and cough all the time ,otherwise chances will be slimmer if u dont

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Very true. Most likely it isn't Mercedes that Red Bull has in mind, but rather the fact that McLaren, having accepted the system as legal, has probably already developed it much further than RB. And as long as McLaren (hypothetically) has the system and RB doesn't, they won't get a single pole.

However, I think it's too early to judge whether the Mercedes is really that slow. In Australia, Schumacher was able to hold off Vettel rather comfortably (at least that's what he said). And Malaysia is, just like Melbourne, somewhat of an exception because of the extreme weather conditions. Last year, the Mercs were also struggling there and then, one race later, Rosberg actually led in Shanghai for quite some time.

Yea it seems RBR are the only "grumpy" kid where as Ferrari and Mclaren just knows that this sort of innovations comes along every once in a while and you can choose to react to it or not.

Mclaren might even have some trick system on their car. The downforce of the car seems to be really good but the top speed is there as well.
RBR is probably carrying the most DF but lacks in top speed. So i wonder if Mclaren already possibly have their own take on a passive system.
Or, it´s just a very good car they have aero wise.

 

[Michael Brown]

I think McLaren has found a happy medium between downforce and top speed. Of course last year RBR had insane amounts of downforce that they were 10 Kph slower in the speed traps. Now without the blown diffuser, it looks like McLaren has found the best compromise rather than going for extreme downforce.

As for Mercedes race pace, MSC hasn't had an uneventful race. I don't think he could have held off Vettel forever in Australia, but I think a top 5 was possible. I see Mercedes going backward in most of the races, because of how DRS is limited in the race. Rosberg seems to be struggling to keep up.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Australia speed trap.

1    Sergio Perez        316.7
2    Lewis Hamilton      314.0
3    Michael Schumacher  313.4
4    Nico Rosberg        313.2
5    Kamui Kobayashi      312.5
6    Jenson Button        310.7
7    Romain Grosjean      310.2
8    Kimi Räikkönen      310.2
9    Jean-Eric Vergne    309.2
10    Daniel Ricciardo    308.6
11    Pastor Maldonado    308.1
12    Paul di Resta        308.1
13    Bruno Senna          308.0
14    Nico Hulkenberg      308.0
15    Vitaly Petrov        307.3
16    Heikki Kovalainen    307.1
17    Felipe Massa        305.5
18    Fernando Alonso      305.0
19    Sebastian Vettel    303.7
20    Mark Webber          302.6
21    Narain Karthikeyan  302.4
22    Charles Pic          301.0
23    Timo Glock          300.7
24    Pedro de la Rosa    297.7

Malaysia speed trap.

1    Michael Schumacher      312.7
2    Romain Grosjean        310.8
3    Nico Rosberg            309.9
4    Kimi Räikkönen          309.8
5    Daniel Ricciardo        309.8
6    Nico Hulkenberg        309.4
7    Lewis Hamilton          309.1
8    Jenson Button          308.9
9    Paul di Resta          308.7
10    Heikki Kovalainen      308.3
11    Jean-Eric Vergne        308.1
12    Vitaly Petrov          307.6
13    Kamui Kobayashi        306.8
14    Pastor Maldonado        305.1
15    Bruno Senna            305.0
16    Sergio Perez            304.0
17    Fernando Alonso        302.6
18    Felipe Massa            302.0
19    Narain Karthikeyan      301.2
20    Pedro de la Rosa        300.0
21    Mark Webber            299.0
22    Sebastian Vettel        298.7
23    Charles Pic            296.6
24    Timo Glock              296.6