What's behind Mercedes' extreme new sidepods
Mercedes may be coming off the back of another F1 title double, but that has not stopped it taking a design concept originally introduced by Ferrari in 2017 and then taking it a step further.
A quick comparison glance between the German car manufacturer's 2019 design and the new W11 shows a very aggressive sidepod solution, with the inlets much smaller than before.
The intent of this design is to improve flow quality into the radiator inlet and reduce the negative impact that the front tyre wake has on flow into and around the entire sidepod structure.
For 2020, Mercedes has joined the group of teams going down this route: lowering and bringing the uppermost side impact protection spars forward to improve power unit performance and reliability, while reducing drag and refining the aerodynamic output of the car.
The sidepod undercut and general shaping is very extreme due to their adoption of this lower impact structure and letterbox style inlet solution.
Mercedes is keen to edge out rivals when it comes to power unit performance once more in 2020, having given up ground to them last season.
Improving cooling efficiency will therefore be high on the agenda, in order that it can run in higher power modes for longer, as it clearly was unable to exploit the power unit upgrades introduced last season. It will expect further power gains in 2020 that must be unlocked to assure its continued success.
The W10 (pictured below) was already pretty extreme around the midriff, with a distinctive shape to the chassis that pulled everything as close to the body as possible.
Mercedes AMG F1 W10, chassis
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
To maximise this further, and to take advantage of the new shapes and contours in this region, the W11 may also feature a revised fuel tank layout too, allowing even more scope for the revised radiator and sidepod packaging, while also improving weight distribution.
How we got to this point...
The FIA introduced a common side-impact protection spar (SIPS) design to reduce costs and better manage side-impact loads in 2014. This curtailed the more exotic designs we'd seen in recent years, with limited scope in the regulations restricting the design options available.
However, the changes made in 2017 reopened closed wounds and once again allowed designers to rethink the placement of these SIPS and the bodywork that surrounded them.
Ferrari was the first to take advantage, with the SF70H, but others swiftly followed suit, with three other teams sporting a very similar solution in 2018 and more taking advantage last season.
Share Or Save This Story
Haas reveals its major F1 United States Grand Prix update
British GP: F1 technical images from the pitlane explained
Australian GP: F1 technical images from the pitlane explained
Has George Russell hit his stride too late? 'With this form I would have been in the fight'
Why McLaren was so much slower than Mercedes on Baku's straights
Why Mercedes is still quicker than McLaren
Juan Pablo Montoya admires Franco Colapinto's "aggressive" approach despite Baku crash
Pedro Acosta told KTM he wants to beat Marc Marquez on the same MotoGP bike
What made Red Bull so fast in the Azerbaijan GP after Max Verstappen’s qualifying issue
Has George Russell hit his stride too late? 'With this form I would have been in the fight'
Why Mercedes is still quicker than McLaren
Baku late-race chaos almost costs George Russell victory over Max Verstappen
How George Russell claimed his career-best pole margin in F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying
How the chase to catch Mercedes is unfolding
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments