Imola 2003

After Michael Schumacher had the worst season start since he got his drive at Ferrari, it was time for him to reinstate himself as a winner. Unfortunately, both Schumacher brothers lost their mom the night before the race event, and were therefore clearly affected them. Both men decided to race, which they both did very well (considered the circumstances)! The race itself was nothing more than a fraction of the spectacle we had seen during the latest GP's, which is quite normal for Imola. The circuit may have had its last F1 event for some time now, as they did not meet to the FIA demand of changes necessary for the circuit to keep it on the calendar.

The Imola GP circuit has some of the highest and toughest curbes in the complete F1 season, which forced some teams to strenghten their suspension arms with some extra titanium. Jordan did not want to take any risk and enforced the upper front suspension arms by coupling them together with titanuim at the wheel's end.

Barge boards and what they used to be...

I wrote in the review of the Brazilian GP that McLaren has no more barge boards, which was a remarkable switch since they have almost invented these things, and made them in kingsize format. This statement needs in fact a little nuance, because there still are barge boards on the MP4/17D, although the size has been reduced to about the same as on the F2002, although looking a little more flashy. I'm sorry I can hardly show on any pictures, but as you may know, black on black is not always very clear ;).

So the size has been decreased, but the designers at McLaren took a sneak view at Williams, who have been running 2002 without any barge board, but instead had placed turning vanes between the front wheels to guide the air smoothly towards the splitter and the sidepods. The new approach has two main advantages compared to a traditional barge board layout. Firstly, the airflow that is somewhat distorted by the ground effect of the front wing is catched earlier, meaning that there is still more "time" left to stabilise it before it reaches the side pods. In second place, but certainly not less important is the distance that McLaren locates its turning vanes from the centre line of the car. In an attempt to limit the ground effect generated by the diffuser (located under the rear wing of the car), the FIA set a minimumheight for aerodynamic parts that are more that 20cm away from the centre of the car (this is the same rule why you can notice these bent down front wings). As McLaren's turning vanes are located within that limited area, they can place it as low to the ground as possible, a difference that enables them to turn all air from the ground to the bottom of the nose cone, where at the same time, the usual barge board leaves at least 10cm spaces from the ground.

Not coincidentally, BAR have also adopted this idea. Geoff Willis has apparently not yet forgotten what he learned at Williams.

Minardi vs Jordan

As I noted some nice things about the Jordan, and still they are struggling to get a way up to the grid from the last rows, I thought it could be interesting to compare the two F1 teams that are most likely to have the least financial possibilities. Well then...

Let's first go out from the idea that both engines in the cars are identical. I do not know if that is exactly true, but as these are supposed to be the same spec from last year's Jag, we could do with that. We know Minardi hasn't been able to show its true possibilities in the non-European Grand Prix' because they had to drive the races with last year's Bridgestones. Since Imola, they drive on tyres that are or should be as good as those Bridgestones of the other teams. Still, with the same engines and tyres, there was a difference of 1.5 seconds between Giancarlo Fisichella and J. Wilson (both these drivers qualified in front of their teammates). Where is the difference then?

A pointy nose cone on the Jordan allows a smooth airflow towards the end of the car, without generating too much air resistance. Airflow under the nose is corrected by turning vanes only, where Minardi opts for the barge boards. Although it might sound all very good for the EJ13, there is still something I would consider revising when creating a new aero package for the EJ13. You can see that under the air inlet of the sidepod, most of the air is more or less forced to flow around the sidepod towards the diffuser. I do not know the needs for cooling the Ford engine, but making that underside a little more pointy downwards could generate a little downfore and extra air onto the radiators (I picked this idea from the F2002 I know, but it has been used a long time before one spoke of 2002).

The most important aerodynamic difference may well be the shape of the side pods. The above images perfectly show that Minardi's pods start earlier and the air inlet is under no angle, where on the Jordan the sidepod was made likesome kind of a half moon when you would look from it from the top. Furthermore, the Jordan side pod is substantially lower and flatter to Minardi's, even though is falls quicker downwards closer to the rear wing. Both the half moon effect (which consists the coke-bottle-shape) and the height invoke a smoother airflow over and aside the sidepods, compared to the Minardi. There is at first less air resistance for overflowing air, which should enable a smoother airflow towards the rear wing. Comparing images of the side pods show that more air can be pulled to the diffuser at Jordan, whereas Minardi wants that pulled air partially to flow over the rear wheel (invoked by the triple-layered flap combination).

Another critical aerodynamic area is for sure the cockpit surrounding, with the driver's helmet disturbing the air flow to the rear wing and the upper air inlet under the anti-rollbar. Although you should keep in mind that Jos Verstappen (in the right picture) is somewhat taller than Fisichella, a team should take such a thing in account (you can also notice that the Jordan is perfectly build for Giancarlo, because Firman kind of sits in the cockpit like Verstappen. As Fisico's head is a lower in the car than Jos', you can imagine the difference in air resistance and turbulence behind the helmet, certainly because in Fisichella's case, the headrest neatly follows the helmet's shape, thus smoothening airflow towards the rear wing.

Finally, aside from the comparison here, Minardi introduced a new front wing (see lower picture), which looks like the one from the F2002, but with extra flaps on the inside of the end plates to generate a little more downforce (stole it from Williams). The new front wing was welcomed by the drivers, although Verstappen noted that he cannot yet benefit from it because it's not fully developed. He stated that for a good evolution Minardi should be doing some wind tunnel testing, which is unfortunately impossible with the limited budget.

Noteworthy

• Michael Schumacher completed the raceweekend in a Ferrari that had an assymeric front wing configuration. The difference was small, but could be notices right under the nose cone, in the middle of the front wing (please see the forum for a picture and further comment).
• Both Ralf (see picture on the right) and Michael Schumacher adjust their helmet designs to clarify that they mourn the loss of their mother.
• Williams has done some years now without any tobacco sponsor, and now they attracted a sponsor that produces a product that should help people to stop smoking. The farmaceutical concern GlaxoSmithKline wants to promote NiQuitinCQ by a sponsorship in Formula 1. Williams chief Frank Williams stated that this deal confirms that there is still a future for Formula One after tobacco sponsoring.
• Sauber has confirmed to have a (new) testdriver. The team has been without an official driver for some time now, but Peter Sauber decided to give a chance to 19-year old Neel Jani from Switzerland. Jani is at the moment driving the Formula Renault V6 championship, where he won the first 2 grand prix'.
• Renault came up with a slightly adjusted front wing end plate at the start of Imola. The lowest flap parallell to the ground has got a bend, but the change here is that this bend is now from the beginning to the end, where at previous GP's this season, this small element was flat in front, and bent a little up towards the end.