Melbourne Australian GP 2003

After all team have been testing their new contenters intensively, or at least they were aiming to, they were supposed to be ready for the start of 2003. Unfortunately, some teams weren't completely, and Arrows didn't even have the chance to try any more. As a result, 2003-GA (named after the late Gianni Agnelli) will be driven by 20 cars, equally divided over 10 teams. McLaren set some record breaking times at Barcelona, as were their 'friends' in Maranello with their F2003.

All teams have come up with a totally new car (even Williams, although looking with one eye at the FW24), with 2 of them delaying the use and/or launch of their new contender until the european campaign. Those two are Ferrari, who are already testing their F2003-GA extensively, and McLaren, where all keep silent about the new MP4/18. Rumours have been saying that the new Mercedes engine will be able to deliver 930 hp at 19.700 rpm ... there's still a lot to look forward to!

These are the gladiators that will compete in 2003:

It's all about the dots

One of the teams to look out to was defenately B.A.R. The team had been revamping itself during 2002 under the impulse of new chairman David Richards, and has continued its change throughout the season change. BAR is no more. It's now all about B.A.R. Don't ask me why, possibly they must have thought some little dots have the magic power to get them in front. Maybe it helps, but what will have helped a lot more is the appointment of new technical director Geoffrey Willis, who came over from Williams during the 2002 season. Now, 7 months later, the BAR004 is the first car designed by Willis at BAR, and it looks like a race-BAR more than ever. The team did admirably well during the winter tests, but kept struggling with reliability. Nontheless, both cars finished the race.

The BAR004 has shown its potential already in the first race, having a good pace alltogether. Willis saw that last year's BAR was way back on aerodynamic efficiency, and did well to solve all the problems. First of all, the front wing is remarkably thinner than on the BAR003. It now has more or less the shape of the bent front wing Williams was using during the second part of 2002. You can imagine the difference in efficiency... the pictures say it all.

You can see the enormous difference in size. It just looks like the BAR has been on a diet, and looks a lot more healthier now. The nose cone leaves a lot more space underneath to allow air flowing under and aside the car with as less as possible resistance ( which would generate drag and decrease maximum speeds).

• The complete concept of designing a BAR car has like totally changed, which result in this kind of beautiful creations. Together with the front part, the air happer has been moved further away from the driver's helmet, to allow smooth airflow into the happer.
• The safety collar around the cockpit was made a lot thinner, thereby reducing air resistance once more
• Because of the highered nose cone and lowed seating position, J Villeneuve complained during tests about his position, thereby not being able to see a lot of the road. Luckily, the problem could be solved. After all, Villeneuve must have been happy with the little problem, because it is certainly a sign that the driver is located lower to the ground, more or less putting the helmet out of some airflow and lowering the center of gravity.
• The rear part of the BAR has just like all the other teams high exhausts, which could be directed more straight to the back because of a lowered end of the side pods. Moreover, the with of these pods has also been radically decreased, which makes the diffuser more efficient.

Rear wings anno 2003

With rear wing regulations staying the same, teams could concentrate on an evolution of their previous models. Rather unexpectedly, we could notice a new, different design with both BAR and McLaren. These teams (BAR's rear wing can be seen on the picture above) have bent the flaps in a way that the center of the wing sections is lower to the ground at Mclaren, and Further to the back (at BAR) than at the sides of the horizontally placed flaps. BAR's idea of creating this flashy looking rear wing might have come from a desire to decrease drag, and still keep generating the same amount of downforce. The wing flap that is bent is now a little longer than a straight flap, enabling the engineers to set a lower angle of attack for the same air deplacement.

McLaren on the other hand lowered the centre of all the flaps to get more air up than a traditional straight flap would be able to. More air passing the engine bonnet is pushed over the rear wing, and will thereby generate a surplus of downforce on the MP4/17D. Neither of the teams have changed the height or size of the flaps at the fixing point with the end plates because of FIA regulations. it is at the ends that the comformity to regulations is checked.

Snapshots

It's been a year since we have seen him in Formula one, but he's back, Dutchman Joss the boss drives a minardi, aside of Justin Wilson. More important is the material he had to complete the race with. Everyone was surprised last winter when the minardi drove a one day test with F3000 Avon slicks, because there was no agreement yet with a tyre supplier. Due to this late agreement between Bridgestone and Minardi, the team will only be able to drive with the new Bridgestone tyres from Imola or Spain on, and will until then have to complete the races and qualifyings with 2002 tyres. It is reported that these would be half a second off the pace of the new tyres.

As most off the teams already last year showed the advantages of a front wing end plate bent inwards, all teams have now adopted this method which Ferrari introduced in 2000. Aside from that, Jordan uses the same end plates and nearly exact front wing as last year. Nevertheless is the new Jordan looking a LOT better than last year's contender, with the very odd nose cone. Fisico stated in winter testing to be happy with the Ford engine and the new gearbox. There are a lot of reasons to be happy with the new car at Jordan, although they might face a hanging sword of Damocles if financial problems continue for the teams.

Jaguar starts the year with an 'radical evolution' of their problem child last year. We have seen the R3 had some potential, which allows Irvine to finish third in Monza 2002. The R4 is actually a quite conservative car in such a way it may be considered like an R3 with a different inside. Having heard few about the new Cosworth engine, I can only suppose it is stronger, but the lack of rumours suggests it is nothing quite spectacular. The punch this year should be coming from the new suspension and gearbox. The picture shows Jaguar's ability to create an aerodynamic efficient car. Keeping the driver's head low, and the air happer a little more to the back, allows a better airflow around the critical cockpit section. It was not for fun when Jaguar decided to build a hypermodern windtunnel near their English base!

Barge boards ??

Well he's probably just jealous about what Mika Hakkinen is doing with a rally car :D . I have rarely seen such errors made by Schumacher or any other respected driver in Formula one. He rubbed a curbstone with the underside of the car, and thereby loosening both bargeboards, which would come off later in the race. The pictures show it wasn't a very succesful weekend for Schumacher and Ferrari...

Luckily for the technicians between us, we could see things on the Ferrari that were otherwise completely covered. This uncovered central area of the car, under the monocoque is very crucial to the total downforce generated by the car. We could notice (see the picture) that the F2002 guides some of the underpassing air up into the side pods by the means of a splitter. Ferrari constructed it in such a way that it generates a little downforce, but more importantly, increases airflow in the radiators, which provide cooling to both the engine and oils.

Speaking of barge boards... have you noticed something about the MP4/17D ? It's nothing new, but it's exactly the opposite! McLaren has been the front runner for barge boards during some time now (although Ferrari did nice too, remember the sanctioning in Malaysia), they have complete left out these boards on their car. Formerly, the McLaren was equipped with very large boards, but it seems like the use of it isn't anymore useful on the car, compared to the weight of them. Although they are constructed of very light carbon fibre, the small weight difference can now be used as ballast. Moving this ballast around the car may improve the balance and lower the center of gravity.

Noticed...

• Flickering rear lights during rainy periods are now considered normal. I found it a little strange at first impression, but thanks to some people on the forum we know it are not electronical failures :) The rear light must now flicker in rainy conditions, and when a driver enables the pit lane speeder to limit the maximum speed of his car.

Next review will discuss more about the new cars in F1...