Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The Pit Lane. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
F1 2014 - Mercedes Ultra Dominance
Topic Started: Apr 21 2014, 03:42 PM (797 Views)
P1
Chief Engineer
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Mercedes have in every aspect dominated the first four races of the year in a way never seen before in F1:
- Every pole position!
- Every fastest lap!
- Every race victory!
- Led every race lap!

The Ferrari F2004, Williams-Renault FW14B or the McLaren-Honda MP4-4 were not nearly as dominant. Time for the other teams to forget 2014 and put all resources into their car development for 2015. <doh> ... <think>
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Rob
Member Avatar

Admin
I thought Daniel Ricciardo led a few.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ELUSIVEJIM
Member Avatar

Forum Host
P1,Apr 21 2014
03:42 PM
Mercedes have in every aspect dominated the first four races of the year in a way never seen before in F1:
- Every pole position!
- Every fastest lap!
- Every race victory!
- Led every race lap!

The Ferrari F2004, Williams-Renault FW14B or the McLaren-Honda MP4-4 were not nearly as dominant. Time for the other teams to forget 2014 and put all resources into their car development for 2015. <doh> ... <think>

Well its getting closer.

Rosberg had to fight his way through the field even thought he should have been 2nd all along.

Think Rosberg's car had issues during the whole race.

Again I decided after 10 laps to go back to bed.

The last race was good but China was beyond boring <grrr>
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Steelstallions
Member Avatar
Driver
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
They have started strong, but there is a lot of untapped energy and resource in other cars. a quote from Ferrari forums
Quote:
 
If we see the monkey seat reappear on the car it would suggest we have solved our power issues. I think we are sacrificing this piece to reduce drag, allowing us to be semi-ok on the long straights. The lack of monkey seat may be the reason for reduced traction as its primary role is to extract more air from the diffuser creating more downforce at low speeds and a more stable car. At the moment we can't afford to run a monket seat as we would be sitting ducks on the straights. If we can extract more PU performance we could run a monkey seat which would improve the traction and handling. Front wing changes could also yeild huge gains it seems our front wing lacks complexity and we have not updated it significantly for a while. Compared to other teams it seems less complex in my opinion it looks like we have had to comprimise downforce for drag in this area also as we have gone for a more slippery design. This could be to compensate for low rear downforce and to reduce drag generally or most likely both.

We probablly have a whole load of new parts to produce more downforce that we can't use because the drag penalty is too high for the PU deficiency. There is alot more potential in the car and and the key is sorting the PU, the snowball affect of this could bring seconds not tenths!


Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Rob
Member Avatar

Admin
Steelstallions,Apr 21 2014
08:40 PM
They have started strong, but there is a lot of untapped energy and resource in other cars. a quote from Ferrari forums
Quote:
 
If we see the monkey seat reappear on the car it would suggest we have solved our power issues. I think we are sacrificing this piece to reduce drag, allowing us to be semi-ok on the long straights. The lack of monkey seat may be the reason for reduced traction as its primary role is to extract more air from the diffuser creating more downforce at low speeds and a more stable car. At the moment we can't afford to run a monket seat as we would be sitting ducks on the straights. If we can extract more PU performance we could run a monkey seat which would improve the traction and handling. Front wing changes could also yeild huge gains it seems our front wing lacks complexity and we have not updated it significantly for a while. Compared to other teams it seems less complex in my opinion it looks like we have had to comprimise downforce for drag in this area also as we have gone for a more slippery design. This could be to compensate for low rear downforce and to reduce drag generally or most likely both.

We probablly have a whole load of new parts to produce more downforce that we can't use because the drag penalty is too high for the PU deficiency. There is alot more potential in the car and and the key is sorting the PU, the snowball affect of this could bring seconds not tenths!


Posted Image

<please>
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Norbert
Member Avatar

Admin
Seconds? Do me a lemon... Doubtless it would make a huge difference, but I think that's pushing it. Although, it does remain to be seen, how much of the performance of the Merc is from having enough power to drag an inefficient package around very quick as opposed to say Red Bull, who have tons of downforce but not enough power to overcome the drag?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Rob
Member Avatar

Admin
I wonder if McLaren are reconsidering their Honda contract for next year.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Iberiafromoz
Member Avatar
Chief Engineer
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Rob,Apr 22 2014
02:32 PM
I wonder if McLaren are reconsidering their Honda contract for next year.

Do they have the choice? And the way that Mercedes engine is performing this year, I don't think they will give it away too easily.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · Formula 1 · Next Topic »
Add Reply