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Well, we had the topic about Ferrari under investigation regarding their power unit and the addition of sensors.
Maybe we have one on our hands for Mercedes.
Motorsport Italia reports
On the W09 holes would appear in the rims and hub to prevent overheating of the rear tires. But the rules prohibit mobile aerodynamic solutions and the FIA had rejected something similar on Red Bull in 2012. What will happen at Austin?
To defend yourself you must attack. This typically football style can also be translated to F1. Ferrari has been "bombed" by the FIA's technical inspections, always inspired by Mercedes men: when it was not the former rider of the Cavallino, Lorenzo Sassi, to cast doubt on the power unit of the Cavallino, it was James Allison, the technical director of Brackley and ex dt of the Sport Management.
Mind you, the SF71H is a single-seater that was designed to the "limit" of the regulation by express wish of the then president, Sergio Marchionne, so it should not be surprising that the Reds would be more closer to what can be defined as the "gray" area of the rules.
Just remember the controversy for the showy signs of smoke already started during the winter tests, when the Ferrari burned oil after the start of the power unit in the pits. In Spain, then, the rearview mirror had been contested with the double support mounted on the Halo: the upper one had an indisputable aerodynamic function, so from the following Monaco GP it was expressly forbidden (except then leave supports that had become authentic diverters flow and vortex generators on other cars).
Those were just the precursors for the very hard attack on the battery of Ferrari that lasted for months until the adoption of a second sensor that controlled the output of electricity from the second body of the accumulator developed by the Cavallino already in the project of 2014 .
In short, the spotlights were always on only on the Reds, while Mercedes played her role as a great accuser. Now a case would emerge that could have implications for the United States GP.
A regulatory clarification letter would start from Maranello because it seems that Mercedes uses hub and rear rim with appropriate holes that could extract more easily heat from the tires, avoiding those overheating of the rear axle tires that had characterized the W09 from the beginning of the season and instead, they suddenly disappeared from Singapore onwards.
At Spa Francorchamps for the Belgian GP, Mercedes had debuted some new rear wheels that had been made exclusively with the Italian OZ Racing. The new wheels had certainly not gone unnoticed by the new design: between one race and another two protuberances appeared that copied the shape.
The engineers of Brackley had deliberated a very complicated design, difficult also to realize with the forged magnesium, for two valid reasons correlated among them: the first one, to improve the extraction of the hot air from the circle in order to lower the temperature of the tires hindquarters subjected to traction efforts.
Not only that, but the second reason was the fact that the additional "teeth" of the rim, which look like cables, create a greater volume useful to dissipate the heat of the tires as if they were small extra "radiators".
A great deal of work has been done to mitigate the main flaw of the W09, but it would have been apparent in Belgium that the change would not have been sufficient to solve the problem definitively. And, therefore, the rear suspension that simulates the four steering wheels would have been introduced.
It seems that a ZF technician goes with the team of Brackley also to Austin just to follow the development of a technical solution that, in addition to giving immediate benefits to the W09, can also be transferred to the standard product, where there are already many houses that use this concept on the most powerful cars, as it allows a better insertion and a faster cornering of the curve with a lower steering angle.
All in the norm, because using brake by wire, differential and rear suspension it is possible to have a useful reaction of the car that is well suited to the driving style of Lewis Hamilton and less to that of Valtteri Bottas.
But to overcome the overheating of the tires would have been designed to extract heat, using the movement of the wheel and the hub: but if so we would be faced with a mobile aerodynamic system, strictly prohibited by the rules in force if not for the DRS.
The Mercedes itself would have asked the FIA if the solution used in the rear of the W09 is up to standard or if it would not be better to go back. On the silver arrow a solution was used that was seen for the first time in the 2012 Red Bull RB8, when holes had been introduced in the front hubs and rims above.
The FIA had labeled that solution as illegal from the Canadian GP, believing that it was in the presence of a mobile aerodynamic system. The same concept was then proposed by Williams with a fixed channel connected to the upright, giving rise to the blown hubs (which also uses Ferrari).
The holes in the rear of the Mercedes, however, seem more similar as a principle to the 2012 Red Bull idea. What will happen to Austin: what position will the FIA take?
translation by balls2brakeLate44 @ reddit
https://it.motorspor...mobile/3196132/
link includes drawings regarding the Red Bull solution from back in the day
Edited by statman, 17 October 2018 - 17:10.
