Comments on: John Beamer’s F1 tech file: Monza

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:54:08 +0000

williams also removed its bridge wing. great article

By: John Beamer

John Beamer — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:50:31 +0000

Sumedh – yes, you are right. That is partly because BMW dispenses with the bridge wing so the exact purpose is ever so slightly different.

By: Sumedh

Sumedh — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:26:42 +0000

Thanks John,

I was confused about the shape since the BMW ears seem far more infused in the body, while those on Mclaren seem crude extensions.

By: John Beamer

John Beamer — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:56:02 +0000

And on the BMW/McLaren dumbo ears the convex/concave point is largely one or perception. If you look at the bmw wings they are actually the same shape as McLaren but just with “endplates” on.

By: John Beamer

John Beamer — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:37:16 +0000

Jian – after Singapore I’ll do a preview of the last three tracks. By the way, it will probably mostly come down to track temperature.

Singapore should favour McLaren (slightly) partly because it is run at night. Temp will still be mid-high 20s but Ferrari tends to excel when track temperature is in the 40s or so ….

By: Jian

Jian — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:49:33 +0000

Thanks for the insights John! I am interested in what you have to say about the last few racetracks of the season, I guess I mean Shanghai and Brazil, which are the downforce/speed requirements of those tracks and which car do you think has the upper hand? I tend to think ferrari because of their strong finish last eyar but I really don’t know, maybe you could help?

By: Noel

Noel — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:49:21 +0000

It occurred to me also that Seb made the most of a dry setup on a yet track. It would be very interesting to see who ran quali on a dry setup and which out of the top ten stuck to the dry… simply because the ITV team seemed sure Sunday was going to be dry…

By: Alejandro

Alejandro — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:23:00 +0000

Great stuff! any comments on Vettel’s setup for Monza? I remember him being asked about his trap speed being 10kph higher than everyone else, he laughed and said ‘that’s because we were using a dry setup’, which would make his cornerning performance rather, perplexing. But at the same time he didn’t finish that far ahead, so it does seem like he had to be rather slow in corners. It would be nice to get some apex/straights speed table on this one

By: John Beamer

John Beamer — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:09:16 +0000

The BMW and McLaren dumbo wings are interesting as the designs are completely different. One thing to bear in mind is that BMW doesn’t have a bridge wing so it manages flow a little more aggressively in this area – hence the “convex” shape – though it isn’t really covex, the device does interact with the airflow closer to the ground (slightly). For McLaren the bridge wing does this so they can get away with “higher” dumbo ears.

By: Sush

Sush — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:09:24 +0000

its probably more aerodynamically stabile though.