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[spankyham]

My thoughts on sidepods.

Ferrari, Merc, Sauber and Red Bull have very neat, yet different packages. It is hard to be sure about these comparisons, but my thoughts are that Ferrari has the smallest intake area, but its a very close thing with the Merc. Merc has gone for the tightest coke bottle at the rear at the sacrifice of additional width. Merc and Red Bull seem to have the deepest undercuts but that is at the cost of higher COG - what they have mounted is clearly higher inside the pods. I believe Ferrari are aiming for more coanda to target sealing the diffuser area.

Be interesting to see the test programs that run today. I read somewhere that today may be the designated "wet" day.

[Jabberwocky]

I thought button was doing the first 2 from memory

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[Jabberwocky]

Over at McLaren, Button to shakedown with Mag driving the final 2 days

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[Hammer278]

Ah okay. Personally I think Ferrari and McLaren make more sense in giving 2 consecutive days to 1 driver. You get more consistent feedback that way....anyway today's gonna be slow news day. They might just make this the wet day and let Friday be whatever (if the rains come).

[racechick]

Here comes the rain......

image.jpg

[bud]

Button did no running yesterday so it'll be 1:1

[Jabberwocky]

You would of thought they would wait until most teams are up and running before the did some wet weather testing

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[CookinFlat6]

I agree with bud, the front wing sets the design of the rest of the car. For a team to change their front wing philosophy now would mean a major redesign from front to back.

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The front wing can be changed extensively without changing the front end philosophy. A team can go from 3 or 5 elements to 7. The struts and supports can be strengthened and changed without affecting the front concept.

Mercs front wing failure is not neccesarily a design flaw, just a change in its attribbutes to compensate for higher forces or loads. Also from pictures of the broken wing it seems more like the lamination than the support failed

[sagi58]

[youtube]14_KE63eC3k[/youtube]

[What's Burning?]

The single out big exhaust pipe looks pretty badass.

[CookinFlat6]

That must be the most sophisticated and detail F1 rear in history

Hardcore

[CookinFlat6]

I doubt we will see teams changing front ends very drastically. Every team has gone a certain route in getting airflow to the rear end of the car To change the front would require the side pods, the rear well the whole car basically.

This year, getting airflow to the rear from under the front is not so important to the teams that have much slimmer side pods. They are channelling air round those to the rear, hence the tight coke shapes. Merc and Ferrari are all over this, they dont need the air from the front. So the nose is more about front DF and the rear DF seems to be shaped from the side pods. The other teams, including McLaren are more like last years designs, needing air flow under the car to the rear, hence the difference in nose scoop treatment

[What's Burning?]

To induce the coanda effect, you needed large volumes of air to then get sucked in by the exaust gasses. Now that's gone, the idea is to get as much air to the rear wing to create that downforce. The Merc seems to be the absolutely cleanest car in back. They've done the best job at keeping obstructions to a minimum. Even the F14T has a big behind when compared to the W05. McLaren by comparison have a ton of things going on in the back to try and manipulate the air flow.

Which school of thought will work best, who knows yet, but it's clear that both Ferrari and Merc are in one camp, and every other team is in an entirely different school of thought.

[sagi58]

...Which school of thought will work best, who know yet, but it's clear that both Ferrari and Merc are in one camp, and every other team is in an entirely different school of thought.

Taking that into consideration and factoring in the problems Renault seems to be having, with their engines,
does this mean that Ferrari and Mercedes will end up in a two-horse race for both titles?
- to God's screen -

[racechick]

Here are the front wings of. Ferrari, Mercedes and rec bull

image.jpg

On another note the lack of Renault engined cars on track is becoming quite noticeable.