The ultimate copycat?
- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 13 years ago by
.
- Posts
Hi.
I know the 2011 season have just started, but with handful of radical technical solutions introduced by a lot of different teams it got me thinking.
Do You think – would it be possible for one team to develop double floored, Front exit exhaust blown, flexi-winged, pull-rod equipped monster with U-shaped sidepod inlets and low gearbox? The ultimate copycat? As far as i can see with my limited technical knowledge those solutions tend not to overlap each other (apart from double floor and U shaped sidepods maybe) so it is not unthinkable.
I know the regulations for 2012 haven’t been announced yet but we can speculate and i know that F1Fanatic gathers a lot of bright people. Someone might even reach Craig Scarborough to provide his expertise on the matter?
I know Virgin have an update planned for Turkey that includes Red Bull-style packaging at the rear, new wings at the front and back, and quite possibly a double floor. But no U-shaped sidepods, frontal exhaust outlets or flexing wings … as far as I know.
Tried to reach Craig by Twitter and on his blog. Nothing until now.
But I must say it’s an interesting question you make there.
Yeah that new Virgin is near as makes no differance a B-Spec car, it’s also going to have a ‘high nose’ (like the Ferraris, Mclarens and Redbulls rather than the low HRT and Team Lotus noses) and new wing planes in order to gain the much needed front downforce that it has been lacking, and as such causing bad balance and poor race performance. As well as new rear packaging, and exhausts as you say.
Mclaren seem to have comletely dropped their development of their fabled ‘octopus’ exhaust becaue the RBR exhaust gave better rear downforce so they are continuing to refine that, and hopefully get the ‘new diffuser and floor’ from Malaysia and China bolted on to the MP4-26s for quali and race rather than just practice!
Mercedes will hope to have new cooling systems in place, which will mean more airflow to exploit on their aero rather than waste airflow on cooling, producing, they will hope, more downforce and increased 1 lap pace. This should allow Nico Rosberg to contiue his progress in steadily cutting the gap to pole! Should we expect something aesthetically shocking from Merc GP, I beleive it was around this time they introduced their ‘blade airbox’ which certainly got few stares from eyes in the pitlane!
And finally, Williams seem to have ran out of time for their rear updates due for Turkey, but the Grove outfit hope to have them ready to bring to the first European race if the season, at Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.
Ok i’ve done some digging myself.
There’s one more desirable novelty to be had which i forgot to mention – fuel injected exhausts. Renaults and Red Bulls are said to be having it, it uses 10% more fuel during the race to inject it straight into exhausts to provide better gas flow on the braking before the corners when the engine revs drop for more energized airflow feeding the diffuser when it is most needed.
So this theoretical car would most likely have to have the Renault engine. That leaves us with three probable candidates – Red Bulls, Lotus Renaults and Lotus Caterhams (this is so awkward it’s funny). I’d personally like to see one of the Lotuses following this path, teams aspiring to bear such a legacy are bound to follow radical design routes to stay in front, or at least fail with style.
As for flexing front wings, it seems that this solution requires very sophisticated combination of Finite Element Analysis and CFD to simulate material deformations under increasing load, and further develop the wing to work better when it’s bent. I can only imagine how much research and learning is required for this solution to come to life and to be reliable, no one would want to see snapping front wing when the car is charging at top speed, wheel to wheel.
Given the challenges and alterations required for homologated chassis we could see it only in 2012, also the balance regulations will be less strict which would allow to implement all this solutions into one car. It could be the last opportunity before 2013 regulations change, the swan song of the high downforce era.
Small personal note here – Mike Gascoyne, if You are reading this and think that actually it may be worth exploring, i’m available for the job. I sadly can’t provide any technical expertise, but some modest job like Ambassador for Lotus Caterham in Poland would be nice. Or just a nice, green Caterham Seven when You will win the 2012 constructor’s championship.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.