How Mercedes’ Wind Tunnel Mistake Ended Their F1 Dominance

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👏 Thanks to Willem Toet for joining us on this one! - Follow him on LinkedIn / willemtoet1
When you think of Mercedes in Formula 1, you think of the team that won eight championships in a row, but I’ve recently learnt of one key mistake that caused all of that success to end in 2022.
Mercedes arrived at testing in Bahrain in 2022 with an unusual design - the zeropod concept, but the results weren’t as expected. And poor performance lasted until more recently, where now they’re in the hunt for at least a podium most weekends.
So, what caused this two-year blip, well, it all starts in their wind tunnel.
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#Mercedes #F1 #Aerodynamics

[@eedoamitay3341]

The average f1 fan is able to learn so much more than previous years, I absolutely love all of this information, super helpful in understanding the sport and enjoying it more

[@IIARROWS]

Is it? Back when I watched it, I learned a lot, looking in deep to the aerodynamics every week, technical information about development current and future.

[@helloitsme3940]

ikr, and when i talk about these things with my dad and friends, theyre like where did u get those infos.

[@IIARROWS]

@@helloitsme3940 newspapers and specialized magazines?

[@IIARROWS]

@@helloitsme3940 Newspaper and specialized magazines? And TV programs, before the race.

[@RhysWilliams-u3o]

​@IIARROWS the new show and tell is a huge difference... plus the detailed breakdowns you dont need an engineering degree to figure out.

[@ant1010]

Not very glamorous but I used to clean the carpets now and again at the Red Bull wind tunnel site. The scale F1 cars were amazing, even under the bodywork everything was duplicated for working out cooling and fit under load.

[@Eliteboy666]

Damn I'd be more than happy to do that

[@itissrinivasan]

I would pay to do that

[@The_ZeroLine]

You should have taken images and sold them to other teams. Boom!

[@ant1010]

@@The_ZeroLine They've got signs everywhere saying no photography and CCTV everywhere. Their, understandably, very hot on stuff like that.

[@misguidance__]

Fun fact: Particle Image Velocimetry is also called ‘Adrian Newey Vision’

[@crunchyfrog555]

I want to thank Willem for turning up and explaining this stuff to us. For years I used to read magazines like Autosport and wonder about how teams either moved forwards or back in performance, and study the differences between aero on the photos of races. It always fascinated me, but of course I was basically just trying to guess. So I greatly appreciate this level of explanation. It truly puzzled me how Mercedes not just dropped the ball in their design but took so long to fix it. This explains an awful lot.

[@Hinjima92]

Any update on the updside down run?

[@chrismurphy110]

never going to happen

[@CamTooling]

it was always going to end in tears

[@emenesu]

Here we go again. He is waiting for funding, it's going to take more than a year.

[@mfg-music5875]

@@emenesu he should fold and let redbull sponsor it, otherwise its probably going to be never happen

[@Malc180s]

@@emenesu Here we go again - people being impatient with other people asking questions.

[@aumpauskar4653]

Just on a completely different note, my boi Red Bull still rocking a World War wind tunnel

[@into_the_void]

More of a Cold war era wind tunnel, that has since had 2 major component upgrades too

[@mfg-music5875]

@@into_the_void It still nearly falls apart, google mk7 redbull windtunnel, ofcourse they use modern equip, but only modern equip that fits

[@quadrantalerror1121]

It was used to design the RAF's Tornado fighter plane

[@theoriginalcraig]

A chief mechanic once said that MotoGP was 80% rider and 20% bike, while F1 is 80% car and 20% driver. Every year that goes by, I agree with that appraisal more and more.

[@bonk5207]

largely agree but certain drivers completely disrupt this theory such as schumacher + alonso, dragging wildly inferior cars to the top step

[@Bahamuttiamat]

@@bonk5207 not so sure about that. his renault 08 win was controversial. Didn't do anything in mclaren 15+. Zero wins in aston. Every successful driver needs the best or equal best car. That said, the cream almost always rises to the top.

[@chadwickalexanderjr1758]

@@Bahamuttiamat Would you be willing to provide an example of a time the cream DID NOT rise to the top and why is it Wrestlemania 5

[@Neil3D]

This should have been titled as a generalised wind tunnel & aerodynamics education piece, the Mercedes angle was just wedged into the last 2 minutes to give the video a clickable title

[@RoyMatzem]

Sad...

[@JohnSmithShields]

The life of a youtuber

[@sjv6598]

And they are basing their facts on the opinion of a guy who wasn’t even there.

[@Sid483]

When I get more from the video than the thumbnail implies, I'm happy. The only problem is not knowing whether videos are good or not because everybody does the same kiddy-friendly thumbnails

[@Sampsonoff]

Amazing complaints 🙄

[@chrisc475]

Astonishing how long it took them to work things out, given how incredible the aero was on the W11

[@xerctam7612]

Mostly arrogance that zero sidepod was the best possible design in the current regulations

[@Frezzyy]

they haven't worked anything out, the car was really quick in spa by a miracle and silverstone it was mostly just consistent driving by lewis and good pit stops (final laps verstappen was catching up really quickly and mclaren shot themselves in the foot by putting softs instead of mediums). Now the car is back to where it was before, sometimes good sometimes bad

[@j.s3300]

They are as bad as ever during these regs right now.

[@xerctam7612]

@@j.s3300 they are literally the fastest car on the straights. Their only issue is strategy and balance

[@xerctam7612]

@@Frezzyy it wasnt a miracle. They are the fastest car on straights by a delta of more than 3 km/hr without drs. Any track with ztraights and high speed corners, they will dominate

[@CommentFrom]

love all the weird bot comments

[@EyesOfByes]

They never disssapoint

[@somenygaard]

It was a great video with great insides!

[@pseud420]

haha they come into an f1 video like "WOAH MY BOYFRIEND WANTS TO BLOG LIKE THIS, GREAT CONTENT GUYS"

[@John-rm4hk]

Just what a bot would say

[@matpk]

So many ads

[@wnoyes1100]

So Ground Effect era significantly altered how critical the surface texture of the track is to performance. Restricted wind tunnel tests for Mercedes combined with a test “road” surface that was too smooth meant their testing failed to demonstrate real world performance. Consequently, Mercedes spent a long time in the dark as to why their cars were performing so badly compared to their own expectations.

[@robotnikkkk001]

.....NOPE...ACTUALLY GROUND EFFECT does AFFECT SUSPENSION,BUT AT WIND TUNNELS MODELS WERE HELD firmly SO ENGINEERS COULDNT DETECT THAT PORPOISING .......AND ABOUT THESE AIR LAYERS........IT'S NOT that IMPORTANT .....AND LAYERS ARE complicated!!!.....AS JUST *_HOLDING THE MODEL ONLY AT WHEELCAPS_* BUT ALLOWING MODEL itself HOLD BY IT'S OWN........ ......BY THE WAY,SIR COLIN CHAPMAN HAD FOUND THE SOLUTION AT *_ACTIVE REAR SUSPENSION_* .....DIDNT HE......... ....NEWEY IS not GENIUS AT normal UNDERSTANDING ......HE'S GENIUS OF *_CHEATING_* ..........DONT FORGET that......OKAY??.....WHAT *FOURTH PEDAL* AND *COLD EXHAUST* ARE TO DO WITH actual AERODYNAMICS?? nothing.............SO WHEN HE LEFT RB,HE JUST TOOK RIGHT TO USE CHEATS....OK???..........SO RB HAD TO DO STUFF like all others do ........... ........LIKE IT'S BEEN TOLD why REDBULL STARTED TO DOMINATE WHEN ALL other TEAMS STARTED TO PORPOISE,RIGHT????........ALL BUT RB

[@apc9681]

The 22 cars had so much more colour! Bring back fully painted cars through a weight allowance in the next regs

[@IAmLeutrimTopalli]

@@apc9681 I’d rather have full carbon cars with stickers here and there. Save on weight and look even cooler

[@illdeletethismusic]

as much as i"d like more different colour schemes, the worst "special livery" to me was the carbon themed Ferrari, which didn"t feature any more exposed carbon than usual.

[@spamandsazon]

After this video I appreciate the descriptor "deliciously complicated." That alone was worth the watch (everything else was great too).

[@81hlogan]

Two in vid ads and two KZbin ads and I gave up at 11min

[@GuineaPigMan2]

Think it’s bad now? Look into KZbin about to roll out ads on paused videos, as well as targeting ad blockers

[@gcm747]

I mean you could always pay for YT Premium I suppose if ad free is really your thing and it’s a deal breaker watching otherwise free content with a smattering of ads? Free choice is yours.

[@Sid483]

YT Premium has a feature to skip in-video ads, as long as enough people have skipped it already. I just hope they pay the creators more, so they can get away from the hedonistic treadmill that is getting to get more and more viewers

[@fredherfst8148]

Premium absolutely worth the cost ….equivalent to a coffee or two per week…so far.

[@RudiRoelofse]

Get premium, support your creators directly

[@peterhall8572]

The FIA insisting on levelling the playing field defeats the objective of the Formula, F1 is a Engineering competition between manufacturers first and foremost, the drivers championship is secondary, Indycar and single marque series competitions and even the lower formulas are all about everyone being in the same machinery, this is what makes F1 the Top level of Motorsport, it's the top engineers pushing the limits of performance to produce two cars per team that only the ultimate racing drivers have the skill to push themselves to the very edge of their skills and nerves to win with. Flat out racing is a razor edge between control and crashing

[@NeumannKlaus]

So the ATR allocation did its job perfectly

[@into_the_void]

Not a wind tunnel mistake, it was an interesting design choice.. its more of a failure to interpret the designs true real world performance translation , especially the bouncing

[@rolandotillit2867]

Turbulent flow isn't that hard to predict, to be honest. The part that really makes it difficult is when you have a laminar flow that transitions to turbulent, because that transition is unsteady. Because it's unsteady and cars depend so much on flow conditioning, that sometimes it's better to simply induce the turbulence yourself. Sometimes consistent but lower energy flow works better than inconsistent but potentially higher energy flow. Better the devil you know, than the one you don't type of thing.

[@rampel1]

That's so true. In chemical engineering and design you either stay trully laminar or stay the ?#&#^ away from the transient region in developed turbulent.

[@herseem]

kind of sacrificial turbulent flow, if you will.

[@robotnikkkk001]

...NEWEY ALL THE way WAS MASTER....OF *_CHEATING_* .....FIND PHOTOS OF RB'S WIND TUNNEL OF PRE 2022 SEASON....I CAN prove THEY CHEATED ....HOW??....WELL,TO FIND OUT ABOUT GROUND EFFECT AND PORPOISING,MODEL MUSTVE BEEN HELD only FOR THE WHEELS,AND THEY must SPIN FREELY AS WELL TO CATCH THAT DIFFERENT FLOW FROM ROAD SURFACE....... .....IF IT WAS HELD JUST LIKE ALL OTHERS.......NO way NEWEY COULDVE DO anything AGAINST BOUNCING,GOT that?? *_N O T H I N G_* ....HE JUST COULDVE GUESS THAT THIS WILL HAPPEN.........BUT HE DID not BOTHER THANK TO HE DEVELOPED A SECRET SOLUTION RIGHTS ON WHICH HE TOOK AWAY AT MIAMI GP...... .....KNOW WHICH?? *_ACTIVE SUSPENSION_* ))))) .................STOP BLAME MERCEDES......JUST stop...THEYRE GOOD GUYS......EVEN WHEN THEY WERE KINDA bad.........

[@axlhangoover4686]

"Deliciously complicated": I really love Willem!

[@aapje]

A real engineer who loves a challenge!

[@todortodorov6056]

What does this teach us: A good driver (like Lewis) only becomes champion if he is backed by the best engineers. If the engineers make a mistake, no matter "how great" that driver is, he cannot push that car to do miracles and win championships. In other words, Lewis was lucky to drive a Mercedes and not a Haas in the years when he won.

[@blinco1539]

Very true. But don’t forget the checo-Redbull side of the same coin! Just because you have a quality car doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed success

[@sadushukle2141]

And Max was lucky because only Redbull nailed ground effect cars and no one was able to catch until now which is Losing every race .

[@charles-davidberube1174]

At the end of the day, to win a championship, you need the best driver in the best car. One doesn’t work without the other.

[@thelegendgamer4747]

​@@sadushukle2141 That's pretty self evident for any example for that matter, irrespective of it being Lewis-Mercedes or Verstappen-Red Bull.

[@TheHidalgo99]

This is not news though. The competition for the drivers is not fair and never was. That's the result of the technical arms race we all love and enjoy seeing.

[@fablewalls]

Personally, I found it telling that off-track, Mercedes focused engineering and money on making Project One work, a vehicle based on 2016 engines and aero and at the same time, Adrian Newey was working on the Valkyrie which uses Ground Effect to such great effect. I'm not calling that cheating - I just think it showed the man never quit thinking about the new challenges and lessons. It also shows that Mercedes were looking back and not to the future. I read somewhere that the new RB-17 Hypercar actually showcases some of the new technology that will be on F1 cars from 26 - including Active Aerodynamics.

[@davidgapp1457]

What I don't understand is why, given the sophistication of computer simulation in avionics, you need to resort to a wind tunnel. It isn't even remotely enough to know how the air flows over the car - you must also understand how multiple contributing factors come into play. For instance, the dynamics of track layouts and surfaces, mass distribution, car movement, flex, turbulence, suspension, temperature and tire choice can impact the behaviors of the car. This is much more easily done in simulation than in a wind tunnel. Simulation is also an area that manufacturers could utilize their fan base to provide computer time, much as we did with SETI - I routinely run particle physics simulations on the seven computers I have here at home!

[@AndyFromBeaverton]

This was a good thing. No sport should have such dominance that it eliminates any competition.

[@mrbungle3310]

It shouldn't be artificial tho

[@sparqqling]

F1 is an engineering championship, with the budget cap in place let the most efficient and best engineers win

[@Real28]

​@@mrbungle3310 caps aren't artificial. It forces you to be better, not just spend more. Before all of these caps, the wealthiest teams were the best teams.

[@jonathansantos8555]

What about real Madrid's? Whenever they are not winning is such a bleep in the system I suppose?😂😂

[@GiftedGaz78]

Are you joking, look what’s happened since ? Another team is dominating so surly we would have been better off with a strong Mercedes?

[@BionicBurke]

The 60% scale rule is just stupid. It adds complication for the sake of complication. Hopefully with the smaller cars in 2026, we'll see this rule changed.

[@wololo10]

It's more like they dont understand ground effect

[@crisjb7185]

Hey Scott please make a video about how the Pitlane Garages change from F2 races to F1, like how are the garages assigned or changed after every race.

[@thedj9553]

Willem is my favorite guest of yours, Scott!

[@Javadamutt]

You say they won’t repeat that mistake again yet this is the team that ran a fuel tank against the back of the driver giving a high centre of gravity twice during separate eras

[@Jamesmsteward]

Fun Fact: The little tyres that they award for Pole Position in qualifying are the same tyres Pirelli give to teams for the wind tunnels

[@MendicantBias1]

AMG engineer here, we like it smooth not rough.

[@MrDoctorDave]

RIP ChainBear

[@ArnavK-09]

What happened

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

What!?

[@JohnSmithShields]

WTF?

[@captiannemo1587]

Would rather have the entire interview than your commentary. Not that the commentary is bad. But because such interviews are so rare. Can you upload the entire William Toet interview?

[@jamiedufrayer5461]

Nice sandwich analogy 🤣 I'd go meat then cheese then salad, but each to their own eh Scott 😁

[@Bearcat299]

That was an awesome video, I love data, analysis and trying to understand why, how etc.. but i never thought about that. Thanks Willem !

[@TheTylerNCC]

Outstanding video as usual! Very thorough and the detail is exactly why I love this sport!

[@AmericanDIY]

Fantastic video! It makes me more excited about this sport!

[@Matthew-ll9ke]

So instead of spending $300m a year to figure it out, they could've just hired you?

[@StickyBaldieAdrian]

It would be great to see this kind of wind tunnel testing done on the Rally 1 WRC cars to understand their sideways grip and also how they jump.

[@axlhangoover4686]

Deliciously complicated: I really love Willem!

[@qua_lap]

This video is amazing! Thanks for sharing so great insights!

[@artysanmobile]

Though I had no idea what the change would be, I felt intuitively that a dramatic change of tire profile would shake a lot of things up, as the tires were a real part of the car’s suspension. In my opinion, teams still haven’t fully resolved that change.

[@NerfGoslingBrothers]

just started 3rd year engineering thanks for the fluid dynamics recap lmao

[@teddyshepherd2854]

Old KZbin vid, but very interesting from an engineering hardware point of view. And physics of course. It was 1:1 - 100% when built. How WIND TUNNELS Work - F1 explained - Sauber F1 Team

[@jeffery7281]

As a college student of aviation engineering, I'm quite curious of why ppl outside the aerospace industry seems *never truly know what is the boundary layer* , even when their machines could have the similar scale, speed of incoming airflow, and Re nunmbers as an aircraft will be. Like Ferrari's S-Duct on SF23 last year, and the narrow gap in RB20's undercut tunnel. The moment I saw both of them, my brain was yelling "boundary layer diverter", but many ppl seems like just don't understand what they were for, even in some "technical" blogs or podcasts. *Plus:* there's another problem that made Mercedes (and, to be honest, everyone on the grid except Newey) can't find the serious problem of porpoising - the maximum moving speed of model in the tunnel. The car model is not just ride on the ground like what their full-scale reference will do, but instead being loaded via the vertical arms. That basically means the car will be "hanged" just right above the belt, so of course it won't show any evidence of porpoising. And, even if the team already knew the porpoising will be a problem, they will still won't be able to simulated this effect in the tunnel - the maximum moving speed of the arm (and the model) is only 1/10 of the actual porpoising frequency!

[@JesusH.Tap-Dancingchrist7328]

Are you on the spectrum?

[@kishananuraag]

hey yo! not a aero guy, but if they could read graphs on roll pitch yaw, wouldn't that be sufficient for any detects on porpoising? Also, it might be scaling down as well

[@vedantmishra5773]

Fellow chemical engineer here we are basically taught about BL first thing in our fluid mechanics course in 2nd year.

[@misterfooj]

"As a student of a very specific field of study, I'm quite curious why people outside of said specific field of study don't understand the true definition of a specific parameter within my specific industry" 🙄

[@zatgeye7320]

So you understand everything a neurosurgeon says?

[@ralphaverill2001]

I had no idea! Thank you for this video. It seems technical competition is not limited to the car, teams compete with wind tunnel testing technology as well. Better get some more money.

[@OrionFH]

Great video, really nice details

[@Omar_ZX]

Weren't mercedes the company that proved bmw wrong with their wind tunnel, what happened to that mercedes

[@drajitshekher]

I usually am against F1 regulations. This is 1st time they actually made sense to me

[@somethingclever1234]

FIA should not have any aero testing regulations, test all you want.

[@bernieharperyt]

Fascinating and yet compeletely wrong. Porpoising is the inabilty of a suspension to damp the oscilations caused by bumps at high speeds. If Mercedes had been able to keep their innerters and hydraulic heave springs it is likely they could have tuned their suspension to damp out the worst oscillations. RBR knew this would be serious problem and reinvented F1 suspension in advance of 2022 to solve it. That is why Merc and almost everyone else has copied Newey's genius suspension design to be competitive.

[@fredherfst8148]

I like this explanation

[@ItPrey]

2 ad reads in 5 minutes is wild

[@SR-dm5lh]

I don't think that this was the problem with Mercedes. The belt in the middle doesn't wear out. The problem is when you are using a belt AND an external find source, the speed of the air on the belt is twice as high as the one in reality. when you are using the venture effect this would cause a dramatic difference, not 1%. If I need to guess, what happened is that they didn't compensate for this fundamental error because, on an old F1, this has little effect.

[@erikhesjedal3569]

Poor performance or porp performance?

[@richardclowes7428]

I'd be looking at how the air exits the rear of the car, specifically how that affects the car behind.

[@mordsythe]

I’d love to see where these cars could go if the ATR restrictions were removed.

[@lagautmd]

I learned a tremendous amount from this! Thank you for putting such excellent explainers up for us.

[@mfg-music5875]

Could you maybe interview willem on how their workflow is, like which programs they use and how (like its said mercedes is using star ccm+, redbul is using ansys and williams openfoam etc) but how do they test and compare stuff to their windtunnel runs, how do they improve, how fine is their mesh (the "accuracy" how their model before doing cfd tests), do they use math or some sort of trial and error shapes if testing new parts for certain areas of the car etc. This is nerdy but super interesting!

[@321-Gone]

Let us hope that the FIA would increase the maximum wind speed regulation as teams upgrade their wind tunnels. 120mph? That's nothing in 2024. Or at least let teams test at higher wind speed to ensure the calibrations are correct at higher target speeds as compared to computed fluid computations.

[@YT_WTML]

So If a team wins, it gets less time in the wind tunnel!!

[@mr_sanchez]

Yes, since ATR was introduced it is that way. For example Red Bull has way fever runs than Red Bull this (and over the las) season(s).

[@alecmillea4539]

Awesome video!! I greatly appreciate the depth of the subject matter! Very well explained and written!

[@themetalfusionologist]

Keep in mind Red Bull has a wind tunnel from WWII…and they dominate.

[@mcld4214]

Thank you so much for sharing this , this had made me reimagine pergio serez

[@SpeakerMunkey]

I guess the answer is "regulations", but why can't the teams run a motor on the wheels to keep up with the belt, which would reduce the friction wear?

[@RocketPropelledWombat]

Thanks. I was only wondering the other day if wind tunnels have evolved to allow for pitch & yaw etc. the other week!

[@evilutionltd]

Who regulates wind tunnel usage? What's to stop the engineers popping in at night when no one is around and using it?

[@Wimpi3]

Great vid thx buddy❤

[@jonahshill7084]

loved this video! very interesting how seemingly small things can make such a big difference!

[@larssonk22]

But I guess we'll never know the true potential of the zero side pod concept

[@leeting8590]

Can we do one on the proposed benefits of the zero pods and why they failed.

[@josefhorstus5851]

Super interesting. Thanks for the explanation.

[@tourmaline07]

This is a fascinating video and its wonderful to hear from Willem on the downfall of Mercedes. I suspected they designed the W13 for a theoretically smooth road surface which didn't exist in real life at the time. One thing I was hoping for comments on was that a year ago I read a rumour quite a few staff in Merc's aero department got fired. Apparently the models were incorrectly scaled and with wrong tolerances, which would exacerbate the smoothness issues of the road surface. Know anything about this?

[@stephenskgunter]

I was just about to ask the same question, hopefully you receive an answer. The staff firing report didn't receive much attention, and I was disappointed that this video didn't seem to address the scaling error explanation often referenced by Mercedes F1 themselves.

[@slevingaius]

Memory when following the W13 development sequenece is fuzzy, but its a combinations of many elements. "Zero-pod" concept was flawed, while theoritically it had the in class in drag it didnt account for porpoising (Ferrari did consider the same concept but opted for the bathtub sidepods). During wet conditions there was footage of the car having issues keeping dirty air away. It was further compounded when floor/body rigidity was another problem due to lack of sidepods. Hence when Mercedes suddenly showed up with additional rear body supports, Ferrari and RB questioned how did Mercedes knew about it in advance leading the media to speculation did Toto had an insider in the FIA. Its was only when the W14 was in development or already developed did the report surface of a wind tunnel model correlation issue. Aside from LH being uncomfortable with the driver seat position.

[@jimiverson3085]

Gee. when I think of Mercedes in F1, I think of Fangio and Moss. This team is really BAR/Honda/Brawn in drag.

[@AceBlake]

So after all the Mercedes instigated politics of 2022 peaking at Baku, all they had to do was raise the ride height?? It's almost as if Merc were simply trying to get rules changed to suit their needs. Who'd have thought!

[@flyingberserker3965]

Witch they did and screwed the intent of the rules, with was better car following

[@JesusH.Tap-Dancingchrist7328]

All that printing Toto did and he still ended up having to change the fucking car

[@ryansmith6681]

Why is the reduction of wind tunnel time for Red Bull and Mercedes not talked about during lost of performance talks? McLaren and Ferrari have gained more performance. Can’t this be summed up to the additional time McLaren and Ferrari have compared to Red Bull and Mercedes?

[@gioponti6359]

Aside of the “deliciously complicated” F1 car in the wind tunnel or on track, how is that moving wind tunnel floor both flexible (I imagine some sort of rolls around which the floor wraps around… ) enough, yet rigid enough too, so that it does not get sucked off ground, i.e. imitates a firm piece of tarmac? I suppose that moving ground is not a roll nor a disc of near inf diameter ;)

[@adamb2619]

So the smooth belt gave more consistent inconsistent data.

[@theodorstravels]

How smooth exactly are F1 cars on top? I understand they don't even use stickers for supporters, but rather have the names painted on.

[@The_ZeroLine]

Two-year blip? It’s still ongoing. They’re only ahead of the bottom six teams and one of those teams will soon be crushing them.

[@ronjatter]

Good video but not sure why it needs two adverts

[@BIBIWCICC]

I’ve stopped watching “F1 channels” as not one of them has a truthful thumbnail!

[@2103i]

Thank you to both! Something interesting and new fact (at leats never considered) on the biggest e-learning platform called youtube.

[@jkotka]

since liquids do not work well on scale models, i wonder if any team is running any other media than air in the windtunnel in order to better correlate the scale model and the interaction of the medium

[@Ocothunder]

Maybe it's just my speakers but the audio on this video is full of pops and whistles. Made it quite hard to listen to.

[@brucecooley4170]

Does less wind tunnel time explain Red Bull’s current problems? Or Newey effect?

[@GarageGuerilla]

Mercedes got used to throwing money at the problem until the cost cap regs arrived. During the 2017 season, they used to have parts that are tailored to specific tracks and outspent Ferrari and RedBull by tens of millions just to beat them.

[@enyaliosares4301]

Half what you’re saying is true. Yes they threw money at the car. But out spending Ferrari and even RB during those years isn’t true, if that I can assure you. Certainly not by “hundreds of millions”

[@j.s3300]

Outspending Ferrari…ha

[@GarageGuerilla]

@@enyaliosares4301 It supposed to be Ferrari and RB but somehow I forgot to add RB in my comment lol. In 2017 they outpsent Ferrari and RB by $56M and $68M respectively. Not hudreds yeah but half hundred million dollars is no small change either

[@GarageGuerilla]

@@j.s3300 in 2017 they did by $56M.

[@occularpatdown]

How's life post newey at RB going

[@HappySmiley23]

I imagine engineers already use AI as a tool for specific tasks - but how far are we from an AI which uses ALL wind tunnel information EVER (any car any shape of parts / weights / weather) and ALL real information available - to generate accurate computer simulations which can replace most if not all wind tunnel runs?

[@nicko5237]

Question for 2026 new regs ATR will apply even for the new generation of cars? How will that be fair for the top teams? They should allow everyone the same wind tunnel times if moving to completely new regs.

[@not_popskgaming8150]

Ironically, in terms of wins this is there best season with the ground effect cars but they will finish 4th in the CC, their worse result

[@Thiago100Zwetsch]

11:43 I so remember how forceful and fierce they were complaining about that instead of redeveloping their project. I know it's part of the show thou!

[@robotnikkkk001]

...IVE HEARD IT HAPPENED BECAUSE MODELS WERE HELD FIRMLY SO SUSPENSION WONT WORK ......THATS WHY DIFFERENCE CAME...

[@RichardYung-qj3yc]

Y wouldn’t f1 teams do tests with turbulent air? Wouldn’t that make f1 cars follow better?

[@SilvestreFrers]

Great video,the CFD shouldn't give an idea of that error?

[@andro_system]

Where can I find the interview with the aerodynamicist from Sauber?

[@benejeneb]

Aero is life.

[@stephendunk6957]

What about correlation with CFD?

[@robh_uk]

It does seem odd in retrospect that the ATR restrictions weren't put in place until after the first year of the new regulations. Let everyone go at 2022 with full resources, THEN, once we know the pecking order apply ATR for 2023 development. I know covid etc messed a lot of things up with the new era, but they still could've altered this.

[@pranc236]

How much would a mass dampener help a ground effect car? I feel like the added adjustment could be critical from circuit to circuit.

[@herseem]

Your point about reasonant damping is a good one. I've been working on a model for reasonant mass damping on another aspect of the car design that could benefit from it.....

[@alpine1600s]

Wtf. Formula Ford. No aero. Just driver skill. 🧐

[@Malc180s]

They should ban all testing and wind tunnel work in F1.

[@adamn7125]

It's annoying all these stupid rules... Why can't teams put their actual cars into the tunnel and use whatever speed they want?