Answer to the question. Newey. Simples!
I would have said that previously and I did; but bigpat's post has made me think differently; Newey is obviously the driving force but he needs a top notch team or engineers, aerodynamicists etc to achieve what he has; I believe he has built his team over a number of years which would explain how the RB has gotten better over the years!
Id love to agree but ive never heard of a dominating car in F1 that didnt have something going for it, a single thing, that made it that much better
driver aids for williams in 93
Honda engines for Mclaren in 88 (and two top drivers)
double decker diffuser in 09
mass damper in 05
Im pessimistic if you like in believing a "harmonious" team has created that monster of a car, there something maybe illegal, maybe not, maybe internal maybe external that makes that car better then any other. Question is will we EVER find out what it was?
As for RBR's DRS being optimised for corners, if that were so, it wouldn't give them any speed advantage in the race, would it? And then the cars would be carrying too much rear downforce (hence drag), to compete when the DRS is closed ( and be worse off in terms of fuel economy). I believe thy can use their DRS in some corners simply due to the fact that they have a slightly better lift/drag ratio than other teams, allowing more downforce, with comparable drag to others. You don't need to be much more effective to make a big difference, as aero forces rise as a squared value as speed doubles.
The 93 Williams, had driver aids, ( active suspension, auto change )but so did McLaren, Ferrari, and Benetton. The chassis itself was still the lass of the field..
The 88 McLaren was a superb car itself. It was derived from the "lo-Line" 1986 Brabham BT55, also designed by Gordan Murray, which really lowered the centre of gravity of the car. No doubt the Honda engines were great, but when a car is 1.5 secs under the lap record on its first run at its first ever test, ( this story is folklore) it tells you how special it was. No engine alone is worth 1.5 sec in lap time.....
The Double deck diffusers of Brawn, Williams, Toyota etc, weren't the making of those cars either. When everyone else got theirs, the Brawn was still the best car out there. It took McLaren half the season to realise a DD is no use unless the front wing and endplates are optimised to send the air under the car correctly. Previously McLarens (since 1998) channeled the airflow from the wing inside the front wheels. Once they cahnge the concept, and expelled air OUTSIDE the front tyre, like the Brawn, then the car came alive. The DD didn't help Williams or Toyota dominate either......
As for the Mass Damper, yes, the Renault was slower after it was removed, but they still won races. Bob Bell recounted that the car was quick "straight out of the truck everywhere". That is when you know you're car is a winner. After they removed the MD's, Renault had to relocate 10 kgs of weight from the extremities of the car, to ballast on the floor, not a bad problem to have......
As an aside, when our racecars were up the front, they needed very little tweaking at the track, as the base setup we arrived with was very good itself.
Look at Williams 96/97, Mclaren in 98/99, Ferrari 2000-2004. They was no one magic ingredient in these dominant cars, just optimizing all the areas better than others.....
