It's got the potential to be the Next Big Thing? if it works, but equally may make no difference.
We still haven't seen Mercedes' famous front wing F-duct... or is that cancelled?
in the early days quads has J-arms as well
there must be a reason why they got rid of them...
(but RBR will know best i think)
Correction: we haven't yet seen Mercedes' 2012 car.
We still haven't seen Mercedes' famous front wing F-duct... or is that cancelled?
Correction: we haven't yet seen Mercedes' 2012 car.
Two things against that:But their 2011 car is apparently faster than anyone else's 2012 so far in testing. So, a slightly slower season this year?
So the whole process of "optimizing the package" has to restart. The 2011 Merc thus is developed to the maximum, while the all-season development race has not yet begun for the new cars.
I stand corrected. But that's still a difference in development compared to Merc's 2011 car.Not quite true, many teams already have the first 4+ races of development locked out.
First image of the new Merc. Same nose as everyone else.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97553
Nope you're all quite wrong.
None of the F1 commentards seem to have picked up on this, but the Red Bull has no lower wishbone. They've simply thrown away the two large structural members directly in front of the diffuser.
With such a high top wishbone the lower rear wishbone is able to mount higher too. This wishbone is now effectively at the same height as the driveshaft. Not only is it inline, but the wishbone forms an shroud ahead of the driveshaft to offset the negative aerodynamic effect of the rotating shaft, in the critical area above the diffuser (Note: Fully shrouded driveshafts are banned). While this all appears to be logical, the lower wishbone is not a splayed as the upper wishbone. Having the inboard mountings very close to each other is not so good from a loading perspective, so there must be a reason to make the wishbone in such a compromised shape. Again this might suggest the new exhaust needs the wishbone in a certain position to work effectively.