Mercedes AMG Petronas W14

[janneppi]

If you can give drivers credit for making the car fast can you then assign blame for drivers for when the car is crap?

Sent from my Takapalk.

[Nitrodaze]

If you can give drivers credit for making the car fast can you then assign blame for drivers for when the car is crap?

Sent from my Takapalk.

I know we have heavily criticized the Mercedes W14. And l doubt all those who are saying Mercedes would be faster if they adopt the Redbull sidepod concept. I think Mercedes is developing a new concept that may be the next-generation platform to beat. New concepts take time to mature. And they are honing it and tweaking it. But developing a new concept is usually done at the expense of competitiveness at the outset. Drivers and fans not used to Mercedes being slower than the competition are frustrated and occasionally strong words are used.

I kind of get it now, and l think this no-sidepod concept will come good in time. But l think their CFD and wind tunnel work missed something. And that surprised them when they finally witnessed how far off they were from where they hoped to be. It is not about blame. It had to be said openly what was not working so that it can be fixed. Not saying anything would not help them recognize the pain points of the car.

[Nitrodaze]

Finally, Mercedes reshuffles their technical team. Aliison is back and l say hurry!!! But it was claimed he was promoted to Chief Technical Officer but Elliot is now moving into that position in what looks like a swap. It would seem Elliot is being promoted by the look of things. Only in F1 would you see people promoted for doing a bad job.

I bet Masi would be back to wreak havoc on the sport soon as well.

Anyway, Allison back in charge is music to my ears.

[Nitrodaze]

What upgrades would Mercedes bring to Imola?

Whatever it is, speculations suggest there may be changes to the side pod and front suspensions. Those alone suggest the enormity of how they got the design wrong in the first place. Suffice to say, Elliot has become somewhat infamous to Mercedes fans.

[airshifter]

Well the zero pod and slim pod are dead. The suspension changes are easy to spot as well. Hopefully this will be a step forward for the team.

With Monaco being so aero limited, I'm surprised they didn't test the suspension only here. Besides not getting much higher speed data, now they risk destruction of the new sidepods. Having data on just the suspension changes would seem to be a good thing moving forward as well. Then again if they want to catch AMR they might have chosen to just roll the dice and hope it all comes together.

[Nitrodaze]

Well the zero pod and slim pod are dead. The suspension changes are easy to spot as well. Hopefully this will be a step forward for the team.

With Monaco being so aero limited, I'm surprised they didn't test the suspension only here. Besides not getting much higher speed data, now they risk destruction of the new sidepods. Having data on just the suspension changes would seem to be a good thing moving forward as well. Then again if they want to catch AMR they might have chosen to just roll the dice and hope it all comes together.

I can see why they would want to hang on till Barcelona, to roll out all the goodies. Due to the nature of the short narrow track of Monaco, they are very unlikely to learn anything from putting the upgrades on the cars. Besides, Monaco requires a very specific and different car setup relative to other tracks, so it makes sense to go forward with known quantities that would be easier to tweak for this race.

I think the changes to the front suspension may have prompted the redesign of the side pods and maybe other things at the rear of the car. To be fair nobody would be realistically expecting the Mercedes to be faster than their usual pace at this race. But this race is not about downforce or engine grunt but more about good balance and excellent slow and fast corners speed. If Olivier Panis can win here with a midfield car, an upset may well happen this weekend. All eyes are on Alonso and Leclerc. But Russell is a dark horse that may well spring a surprise as well.

[Nitrodaze]

I really hope they have not thrown the zero-side-pod concept out of the window for good. I think it was not fully developed by the time they chose to use it. There may well be untapped potential in the concept, hence may require further development, hopefully for a future return after all its kinks have been eradicated.

[Nitrodaze]

So what's new on the European version of the Mercedes W14 you might ask. Well loads and nobody explains it better than Sam Collins of the F1 media team. See his highly rated and detailed explanation here. As suspected, Mercedes has changed the front suspension array to improve front stability during changes in speed dynamics of the front end. The side pods have flared out, much like the Ferrari/Alpine concept with a guttering running above the sidepod and tapering towards the rear. The floor has changed with interesting underfloor channels replacing the corrugated elements of the previous car. The exposed floor area is now narrower. And the sidepod air orifice is now very much the traditional rectangular square, reminiscent of the W12. The shape of the sidepod covering is vastly different from the no-sidepod composition which had elements sticking out, but are now better integrated into the aerodynamic program of the design. Every component behind the front wheel, now take on some form of aerodynamic duty. And this design language carries through to the rear of the car where interesting winglets can be found.

There are obvious elements on the skin of the car that indicates that this was a hurried job and may suggest that the upgrade work is not complete; there is more to come, l suspect. At a minimum, we would expect the profile to return to the flawless smoothness of typical Mercedes F1 racecars.

I would be remiss to not pay tribute to Sam Collins. He has filled a gap that none of the conventional media has filled convincingly. An objective thorough and detailed technical analysis of the modern-day F1 car. He has carved a niche for himself without negating all existing concepts like the Kravitz Notebook or the famous grid-walk. Real petrolheads really care more about what Collins has to say than all others. But that is not to say we do not care about taking in the show and glamour of it. Sam Collins is the Councillor for Hitchin Highbury in the UK and he has hereby put Hitchin Highbury on the F1 map. If you are new to Sam Collins, head to the F1.com website and check out his many works.

[Nitrodaze]

This new form Mercedes is showing may well put to bed all the talk of Hamilton to Ferrari. But Sainz is showing that the Ferrari proposition is still very much an attractive one. What do you think?

[airshifter]

This new form Mercedes is showing may well put to bed all the talk of Hamilton to Ferrari. But Sainz is showing that the Ferrari proposition is still very much an attractive one. What do you think?

I would have thought that when Ferrari management made it clear no offer was made to Hamilton would put all the rumors to bed. Sure anything can happen in F1, but it's not as if every team wants him on the team for the price he commands, nor does he probably want to race for just any team that offers the right price.

It takes two to tango, and I doubt Lewis is looking to move to any struggling team.



As for the new car, I'm waiting to see how the upgrades work. Time will tell, but Merc themselves have admitted that the Barcelona track would favor the car more than most tracks, and is almost the polar opposite of Canada in terms of setup.

As for Sam Colins, I think he does much better on the tech segments vs anything live or racing related. I know Palmer often has to correct his thinking on race strategy and such. But most of his car related segments seem fairly good. At the same time, I don't take what he says as any more valid than some of the others... he's just reporting what is thought and known about the cars.