Red Bull RB6

[PlatinumZealot]

Yes pretty text book f duct. The lower one is the pressure signal. It does not need a snorkel to work, but the driver controlled snorkel can override the signal.

At least this shows there is no packaging or weight compromise. Maybe cooling is affected slightly, because there is less room in the engine cover.

Maybe I'm retarded but I don't recall a lower duct on any of the blown wings I've seen so far .. McLaren, Ferrari, or Sauber. Am I missing something here?

Yes all the F-duct teams have the tube going down the back. That lower duct is the "Y" in the pipe. THe snorkel is optional. I made a diagram some months ago. I think Ringo also did a simple simulation that shows that the lower duct is the pressure signal as he says and the snorkel is the signal over-ride.

[ringo]

not exactly perfect, but all of them are in the same vein as this:



The snorkel is the lower pipe at the front. The top pipe should be at the top segment in the Mclaren, not under the air box. All this was done months ago when the whole f duct thing was still a mystery, so it's not anatomically accurate.

[raymondu999]

They're not racing the duct. Wonder how that will change matters...
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/83964

[PlatinumZealot]

Jenson Button was right. It really does take time to tune even if it is working properly. I guess it can work too good. But once you get it right, such as in the case of Mclaren you can run it every race.

[ringo]

"So far the F-duct seems to be working quite well. It seems to be replicating what we have managed to do in the tunnel and within our simulation tools, so we have a lot of data to look at tonight, and then make a decision as to whether it is maybe a little bit immature to race here. But we have a lot of very valuable data to either run it here or refine it further for Montreal."

It's not working consistently, so red bull aren't out of sight as yet. Needs a little tuning.
the car will still be the fastest though, but the set back is good for the others

[Tonn]

[zgred]

Better angle.

[ringo]

What's interesting about this design is that the signal pipe is under the wing element. Under the wing can draw more suction than the bridge wing pipe we see on the ferrari and Mclaren.

Redbull certainly put a lot of thought into it. What this does is that the threshold at which the f duct switches is higher. This could be to avoid it automatically coming on in the high speed turns, especially seeing as though redbull can be up to 20kph faster in some turns.

The closer the suction from the signal pipe is to the suction from behind the second wing element, the later the wing switches.
So it can be said red bull only want the wing to work automatically at very high speeds. The driver's control pipe can switch it on earlier to override this preset however.

[D'Leh]

Damn that thing looks really cool with the hood removed. So clean, so efficiently packed up. If I was a technophilic F1 mechanic I'd love to work with that fine piece of machinery. Sadly I'm only a technophile and neither in F1 nor a mechanic. But I'd still like to work with it.

[PlatinumZealot]

You can see the sensors all over it too.

[Jersey Tom]

Agreed.. that looks wicked.

[Just_a_fan]

Better angle.

The system appears to be connected to the engine air feed. I wonder if they're using the engine airbox pressure differential to switch it (or at least involve it in some way). There will be a big internal pressure difference in the engine airbox when at full chat compared to under braking. Perhaps the RB switches modes accordingly. Or maybe they just dump the excess engine air (during overrun e.g. during braking) in to the wing system in order to reduce the effect of air box overspill on the rear wing and also help reduce CofP migration forwards under braking (resulting in a more stable car)

[Blackout]

What's interesting about this design is that the signal pipe is under the wing element. Under the wing can draw more suction than the bridge wing pipe we see on the ferrari and Mclaren.

Redbull certainly put a lot of thought into it. What this does is that the threshold at which the f duct switches is higher. This could be to avoid it automatically coming on in the high speed turns, especially seeing as though redbull can be up to 20kph faster in some turns.

That's what I wanted to say in the previous page.

[timbo]

RBR won't run F-duct for the rest of the weekend.

[tok-tokkie]

The TV I saw of Friday practice when Webber's engine blew showed he has sealing foam on the back of his left glove for sealing the control port. Just like Ferrari. It is not an automatic system. The big difference compared to McLaren is the normal flow when full downforce is wanted is in the lower tube below the wing whereas on McLaren that tube is down to the bridge wing level.
How could their F duct possibly be activated depending on throttle opening (= airbox pressure)? Turn 8 is MAXIMUM downforce corner but it is also full throttle. Down the straight is MINIMUM downforce but again it is maximum throttle.