Barcelona Testing 2019 (Circuit de Catalunya)

It's not just the front suspension but the rear as well with their rear wheel steering.....something they adopted in the latter half of the 2018 season. (Note: these are excerpts from said article relating to the suspension)



How many Mercedes experiments: the W10 simulates the rear steering wheels



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The silver arrow in the first test session in Barcelona tried the basic set-up: the front was chosen for the push rod strut, while behind it worked on four steering wheels and the height from the ground. The real Mercedes will appear next week.

The second analysis concerns the front suspension: the W10 has two configurations. The more traditional one was preferred with the external bracket of the push rod strut that is added to the pivot with which the upper triangle is not only raised, but also offset from the lower one.

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Mercedes engineers have worked hard to gather data on the two front suspension options, while behind they have focused on two other very important aspects: steering wheel simulation and ground clearance. . According to the rumors of the paddock there were a couple of ZF technicians to support the engineers of Brackley to find the right set-up of the "steering".

Let's be clear from the start: it's all legal, because the engineers of James Allison would work on the gray part of the regulation, namely on all brake-by-wire tolerances, engine maps, differential management and resilience of the suspensions. The (difficult) combination of all these elements would give an important result that would facilitate the entry of the arrow in the curve of silver, allowing a greater speed in cornering. The image we posted above is rather eloquent about the behavior of the rear tires at the entrance to the chicane in Barcelona.

If we add to all this that on the W10 were made of ground clearance tests with the car that has also traveled with the bottom parallel to the asphalt and then get to the usual value of Rake (1.2 °), it is easy to see how the silver arrow he shot in Catalunya was a sort of laboratory car.

In these days both in Breckley and in Brixworth will be analyzed all the data collected and from Tuesday, again in Spain, we will see a W10 in a more projected capacity at the Australian GP ...

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You may be right about the vibration from the Honda engine (non-existing). Gary Anderson gave his opinion that those "stays" or "support rods" are there to prevent the rear of the floor/diffuser from "flexing" at the ends closest to the wheels.

Makes sense.

 

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For Test Week 2, there will also be new parts on the Ferrari but as Binotto said rather "small things"

Binotto: "The development race will be even more demanding this year."


Almost all teams agree that they have already reached the previous year's downforce levels. Maybe not 2018 Abu Dhabi levels but definitely where they were 12 months ago.

Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto believes: "The new Pirelli tyres have gotten better."


Newey: "You have to choose between the two wing concepts. There is no interim solution. We could change over to the Ferrari wing without major modifications, if necessary. Mercedes would have more problems there. You would have to change basic things about the car."


Mercedes recognize that before the first race modifications can be made in the car but they are aware that if they do so, they will have to change the entire aerodynamic design.
Mercedes engineers admitted that they are currently checking the Ferrari front wing concept in their simulations:

"It would be negligent if we did not do it. Nevertheless, we must not panic now and have to find out if we can continue with our way/concept."

Of course, the big aero upgrade for the 2nd week of testing still sticks to their old values and concept.


Red Bull does not think they have to copy Ferrari.

Horner: "Our simulations showed in comparison that we are better positioned with our wing type."

Helmut Marko: "We are still behind Ferrari, but their lap times don't worry us."

That Red Bull uses a similar front wing shouldn't calm Mercedes down. The rest of the RB15 is completely different than the Mercedes. High-rake with a nostril that relieves the central part of the front wing.

Red Bull feels like in paradise with Honda. More power than Renault, more electric power on the straights.

Horner: "We had four finished engines in the factory one week before the testing. That never happened in the last twelve years."

Shots fired at Renault???



The biggest surprise was Alfa Romeo. Nobody drives such an extreme front wing. It's the Ferrari concept, just more extreme. Although Simone Resta is coming from Maranello, the SF90 was not the inspiration.

Zehnder: "We focused on this concept right from the start."

Zehnder (Alfa Romeo): "Our engineers were really surprised when they saw the classic front wings at Mercedes and Red Bull. We believed in a fake (front wings) when we saw the presentation cars of them."

Alfa Romeo team principal Vasseur: "If you are alone with a few things, you either did something right, or you are completely wrong. We saw on the first day of testing that the wind tunnel had given us the right numbers."



Regarding Toro Rosso having a similar front wing concept like Ferrari and not like Red Bull

Helmut Marko: "Our cars (Red Bull + Toro Rosso) have more in common than before, but they have to do their aerodynamics themselves."


Mercedes will have their big aero update in Test 2 and maybe that will fix everything for them and they are back ahead. Like Mattia Binotto said, never underestimate these guys.

If in Test 2, they are not competitive or near Ferrari and Red Bull again, the theory that Mercedes bet on the wrong concept gets a bit more clear and recovering from that would be a difficult task at the very least. But for now, nothing is certain.

 

Agreed. There is a more open atmosphere.

Testing - Vettels first day and pulling an exhaustive 169 laps he was sitting on the chair answering questions; seemed happy. Then 134 laps his 2nd test and a more happier Seb.

Yeah, I've also seen Binotto around the paddock smiling.
His english is way better than MA and he seems more open to questions.

Hopefully he mixes-it-up with Toto & Horner after races when DC or Hill or any of the journo's ask questions post race.

 

Ferrari adopts the Mercedes philosophy for the second week of testing. One will do it in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Doing 169 laps in one day for one driver really puts alot of fatigue on the driver IMO.