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has anyone posted the new McLaren sidepods yet?
Apart from the changed exhaust position, the Red Bull RB8 now features something that no other team has thought of yet. Not only did the team create a nice slope on the upper side of the sidepods to get the exhaust down onto the top of the diffuser, it also has a duct underneath.
The duct simple pulls air towards the inside of the car, just like is usually the case with a narrowing sidepod. The airflow in the central part of the diffuser is particularly interesting, as teams are allowed there to have a small opening into the diffuser so that the starter can be fitted when the car stalled in the pitlane.
It is crucial that as much air as possible is fed into this, albeit small, opening, as it basically provides the same effect as a double diffuser. As this central airflow would potentially be lost by the change of sidepod shape, a ducted sidepod like this both retains central airflow and allows for a downwash on the exhaust gases, gaining diffuser efficiency both on the central part as well as on the outer extremities because of the powerful exhaust flow.
has anyone posted the new McLaren sidepods yet?
Is this picture what you mean?
At the final day of testing, with cars now approaching they race specifications for Australia, it was time to have a look against what are likely to be two of the strong teams at the beginning of the season.
Hence, we compared them with images from f1zoom, aligning the cars on lines A, B and C. Although we should be careful from drawing too many conclusions from image comparisons due to their slightly different perspectives, there are a few interesting bits we can notice.
First of all it is clearly noticeable that the driver is positioned more forward in the Red Bull chassis compared to the McLaren. This feature allows for longer and narrower sidepods, creating more freedom for the aerodynamicists working at the rear of the car. It is also likely moving the centre of gravity of the car forward, although this can be re-adjusted with ballast.
Secondly, it also appears that the Red Bull is slightly shorter than the McLaren (note markers G and H).
Marker D finally shows how much forward Red Bull have moved the exhausts, allowing the gases to be pulled down onto the diffuser. The latter is apparently considered crucial for performance by both teams.
Last year though, the McLaren's problems were well documented externally, Ferrari it appears aren't planning a radical redesign, and can anyone shed light on what the problem is?
Guess its a waiting game to find out, not too long to go. It's a long season, maybe made even the more exciting by Ferrari coming back strongly towards the end of it (2010) after a poor start. Although I even enjoyed 2009. I just hope Massa doesn't struggle again, but that really is wishful thinking.
Red Bull seems to be returning to the older spec.
I think their problem lies in the exhausts though, suggested by all the changes they kept making to em...
I don't think Ferrari will be THAT slow come the race but i don't think they're sandbagging, i just don't think there is anything to be gained from that and so can't see why they'd do it. I think their problem lies in the exhausts though, suggested by all the changes they kept making to em...Red Bull seems to be returning to the older spec.
For Melbourne? Strange...
Lotus team boss Eric Boullier says his squad is now confident it can close in on pacesetters Red Bull and McLaren during the 2012 season after its impressive performances in testing.
After a tough 2011 - its last year under the Renault banner - the renamed Enstone squad has appeared to make a massive step forward in winter testing, setting the pace on three out of four days at Catalunya last week with Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.
Although Red Bull and McLaren remain favourites heading for Melbourne, when asked if he felt those teams were out of reach, Boullier told AUTOSPORT: "If I think this I should give up now.
"What is very encouraging is that even if we believe strongly that they are ahead of us, then the gap last year to this year has been reduced so it shows we can catch up. We obviously need to push more on this but we can close the gap, and it is up to us to do better this year and do even better for next year."
Boullier said that even allowing for the fact that testing times are notoriously deceptive, there was enough evidence that the Lotus E20 was a good car - despite a chassis problem meaning it missed the middle week of running.
"First of all this is testing, so even if everybody is watching the lap times of everybody, we have a long range of processes to go through and to test first of all reliability and temperature range, and different logging," said Boullier. "So it is only testing - qualifying will be in Melbourne and not before.
"The good thing is that the car was good from day one out of the box. The car itself has been very well designed and it is clearly a step up over the past years. That has allowed us to put a lot of miles behind us at Jerez, and then we had a little bit of a setback [at the second test], missing the four days, and [the final test] I think was not bad.
"We had to make some compromises on the testing because we were missing four days, so we had to combine eight days with four days, but all in all it was not bad."
Boullier added that Raikkonen and Grosjean were already feeling at one with the E20.
"Clearly the basis is very good," said the team boss. "The car is not easy, but the drivers like it – it makes them comfortable and confident in the car.
"The car is reacting well, matching the simulation figure. So far it is a good basis to start with."
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