The world champion outfit had launched its W12 earlier this month but was open to the fact that it didn’t come with an actual version of the floor that it would be driving in 2021.
With Formula 1 aero rules changing this year to reduce downforce, teams have been forced to revamp their designs in this area of the car. In particular, the removal of an area of the ground in front of the rear tire and the prohibition of holes and slots were aimed at robbing the teams of around 10 percent downforce.
The teams understand that how well they restore downforce in this area will be of crucial importance to their luck in 2021. Hence, they put a lot of effort into making a profit.
Also read:
Mercedes technical director James Allison stated that his team had decided to hold back from showing the floor because they didn’t want other teams to have a head start to copy his idea.
“The part that we don’t show you is down on the ground,” he explained when introducing the car. “This area has been hardest hit by the new regulations, where attempts have been made to improve the performance of the car by changing the ground regulations. There’s a lot of aerodynamic detail down there that we’re not quite ready to show the world.
“Not because it’s not there, but because we don’t want our competitors to see it. We don’t want them to start putting similar things in their wind tunnel. That only gives us a few more weeks.
“I think we all look very carefully at what our competitors are doing, so we know our competitors will look. And we don’t have to show it yet, so we don’t.”
However, before pre-season testing began, all of the 2021 cars were rolled onto the track for a photo opportunity – which forced the teams to finally show off their current designs.
The Mercedes floor has a fascinating layout with the floor edge being corrugated as it runs from the front of the side box area to the rear.
Follow LIVE:
Mercedes F1 W12 floor detail
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The bottom area in front of the cutout is much busier than we would normally expect, with five upward-facing flourishes attached to its edge in coordination with the brackets for the fat flap above it.
As we saw with some of the other teams in their revelations, the bottom also has the little notch where the bottom cutout starts. But instead of coinciding with a collection of winglets or a change in the ground geometry, this area remains free of clutter, at least for the moment.
In front of the rear wheel, however, the action really picks up speed, because Mercedes has opted for a really bold design on the edge of the floor. Not only do we find the largest piece of aerodynamic furniture we’ve seen so far, but it’s broken into several sections, each with their own curvatures to stimulate airflow in very specific ways.
In addition, the last section of the floor has been sloped upward with a downward-facing Gurney tab that provides an abrupt surface for airflow (blue arrow).
Within this wing cluster, Mercedes has three bottom struts, each with their own intricate geometries, designed to force airflow between the tire sidewall and the edge of the diffuser in a more controlled manner.
It is also interesting that Mercedes seems to have given up the maximum volume in the diffuser, with the upper floor arching in the middle area being significantly higher than in the outer area.
This is exaggerated by the cavernous trench created in the middle part of the floor and gives the airflow more space to work inside the coke bottle area (red arrow).
The post Mercedes Trick Floor revealed as F1 testing begins in Bahrain first appeared on monter-une-startup.
