FORMULA 1 MERCEDES-BENZ GROSSER PREIS VON DEUTSCHLAND 2019: PRACTICE 1/2/3 *** SPOILERS ***

Ralph Kramden?

 

Tow strap over and ON the driver's head? Someone really has their head up their ass on that.

 

Reckit Ralf enjoying much leisure time now that he's been retired since 2012.

 

Yes.

 

highlights from fp1

 

The old Hockenheim was a great circuit. This version is a joke.

 

Half way
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Wrong. Ralf took over KSM Schumacher Motorsport, the German karting team founded by his brother. Not only he grew up the operations of his brother's racing team, but also he created his own kart chassis brand: https://www.rs-kart.de/en/

 

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Charles again just sghowing how fast he is...beating seb around here ins't easy!! Now if we could just keep this heat wasve going trough the weekend there might be a chance!! On teh other hand i'm keen to know how good charles is in the wet...that's the only thing i'm missing to know just how good he is.

 

Looking pretty ok for far for Scuderia.

Racing point had decent a session too.Stroll 7th?

 

Alternatively, you can have thicker radiators.

 

Which, all else being equal, only restricts the throughput of cooling air. So there has to be other changes as well.

 

Here's hoping for a wet qualy and race. Bring out some chaos, break the monotony.

 

Means nothing. Times are over 2sec slower than last yr Q3.

See above. Will Lance improve his time by over 2s tomorrow? Doubtful

 

You could but that would add more drag and moreover, the thicker the radiator the least effective it becomes. ie the air travelling through the cores at the back half is losing its cooling capacity very rapidly, so in effect you get little benefit and no / very little heat exchange. Zero gain.
Best
Tony

 

It's been done in the past though ...

 

Yes, but the needs of a F1 car, imho, has changed dramatically from the past. Some F1 teams even up to the 1980's used normal car radiators and didn't really worry to much about drag and airflow within the side pods. If it didn't overheat that was all they were concerned about. Its also worth considering the complexity of the ducting inside the side pods as well, I guess there is a lot of aero work internally as well.

Today its very different and there are 5 heat exchangers I can think of located in the side pods (water,oil,gearbox,turbo intercooler and energy recovery) so the scope has been reduced significantly for the designer. Possibly why Mercedes have opted for a smaller engine cooling system calculated on a risk basis, ie how many times are they likely to caught out by high ambient temps.

Best

tony

 

As much as I hate to say it. Any one can win practice. Mercedes wins races!!!

 

Looks like they have squeezed in another radiator somehow ,at the same time the bodywork is larger to allow for a greater venturi effect,with more airflow/cooling.That should increase drag though so lets see how it works.

Interesting to see if they run in that spec for qualy/race.

 

Maybe everyone else has engine turned down as nothing to gain if raining tomm,but Lance still going flat out?

Even so faster than Cheko!

 

Very good point. In fact, I think we see that with Mercedes EVERY practice, and most of qualy till it matters. Engines producing 90% of potential, sometimes less, and then turned up to the optimum percentage, rarely 100%, for the final part and the race until the point where the pit stops have finished and places are assured, when they come down again. Stupid extended engine longevity rules destroys the whole basis of a championship supposedly designed to test the best of the cars and drivers within it, in truth, we rarely see the full potential of either unless Mercedes falter mechanically, and someone has a sniff of a chance.

You don’t even see very often the call go out to a car to REALLY push for a set of laps (think of Michael in France (2004?) where they were on the back foot, so the call went out to push very very hard THE WHOLE RACE to make up the time loss and to include 4 pitstops (when has it EVER been a plan to pit four times!, never, it happens when it’s changeable conditions, not as a plan). That call used to happen a lot, very very rare now, they rely on waiting for a safety car, or an issue for others, they barely think about actually racing anyone, more about out-pitting them!

 

Well today is a pleasant surprise and I won't make any more out of it than that. My good wishes are with Ferrari. I'll be very happy if they prove my previous pessimism wrong. A Ferrari 1-2 might be a long shot but it would also happen just at the right time. So until it proves otherwise, I'll hope for the best.