W duct.

[stonemonkey]

Just found this:

[youtube]GJ9cFis55xM[/youtube]

Does anyone know if this is being done, who by, and how effective it is?

[scotty]

I heard Mercedes have that on their car but no one seems to know for definite.

[stonemonkey]

I heard Mercedes have that on their car but no one seems to know for definite.

At one of the practice sessions last year Merc were trying out something along these lines but that's all I'd heard about. In the sky coverage they seemed to think the air from the rear wing DRS was being fed to the front wing on the Merc.

[andrew]

I heard Mercedes have that on their car but no one seems to know for definite.

Rumour had it that Merc were trialling this towards the end of last season and were aiming to have it perfected for this years attempt.

[madbrad]

Howcome no one in all the time the various teams have had that nose hole, no one has ever said this is what it is for? We were constantly guessing what it was.

[scotty]

At one of the practice sessions last year Merc were trying out something along these lines but that's all I'd heard about. In the sky coverage they seemed to think the air from the rear wing DRS was being fed to the front wing on the Merc.

Heard that too, but also heard an alternate theory that suggests the rear wing ducts are feeding a slot in the floor that helps to stall the diffuser...

But i read this too:

'He also stated that he has confidence that the FIA will continue to withstand the lobbying from rival teams calling for the system to be banned and said that it was a low-cost item to copy, although a tough one to optimise if the chassis wasn’t desgned around it. “It’s just a couple of carbon pipes running down the car,”he revealed, “They cost thousands, not millions. But the opposition is so fierce because it’s difficult to do it if the car wasn’t designed that way from the beginning.”

From http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/04/b ... -benefits/ , direct quote from Brawn too...

Rumour had it that Merc were trialling this towards the end of last season and were aiming to have it perfected for this years attempt.

Yup. Rumours about a 'front wing f-duct' have been around even since late 2010 if i remember correctly!

Howcome no one in all the time the various teams have had that nose hole, no one has ever said this is what it is for? We were constantly guessing what it was.

I heard either simple driver cooling, and/or that the hole helps control aerodynamic vorticies off the point of the nose.

[stonemonkey]

Straight from the horses mouth then where the air's going, still, doesn't rule out that they could have something like the vid shows too though.

[scotty]

Yeah, we could do with one of the Merc guys having a crash that lets us see inside the nose...

[bud]

Howcome no one in all the time the various teams have had that nose hole, no one has ever said this is what it is for? We were constantly guessing what it was.

It's "purpose" is for driver cooling, but that doesn't stop them looking at others ways to use the airflow.

[What's Burning?]

They're stalling something.

What I've read that was most interesting is that the ducts in the REAR wing, are being used to stall the FRONT wing. When Michael crashed in OZ the was keen to protect pictures of the front wing, and one of the pics taken by Sutton showed planes/ducts underneath the front wing. It really doesn't matter since Merc seem to be uncompetitive come race day, but given that the "loophole" in the rules is activating the DRS can now legally affect aero somewhere else, I'm sure teams are working on things that may even better their solution if it's as cheap and easy to implement when it work in concert with existing flow.