A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
I am inclined to agree. Gary Anderson who was at the launch suggests something more radical at the nose may appear at Bahrain testing. The panel looks very makeshift and there is no cooling ducts on the nose like there usually are.
He also states that RB failed front crash tests and then would have a relatively uninteresting and long nose seems counterintuitive. Now Anderson isn't the highest authority but it's another voice of suspicion about the nose.
I am inclined to agree. Gary Anderson who was at the launch suggests something more radical at the nose may appear at Bahrain testing. The panel looks very makeshift and there is no cooling ducts on the nose like there usually are.
He also states that RB failed front crash tests and then would have a relatively uninteresting and long nose seems counterintuitive. Now Anderson isn't the highest authority but it's another voice of suspicion about the nose.
Agree. I think it can be seen even more clearly on this angle. But why do they waste time and money building these mule parts, or are they not included in the budget cap?
Regardless of the exact sidepod inlet layout, it's interesting to see a bit of a shift in priorities/optimization goals from that of the RB-18 &19. Perhaps it's obvious but it seems the focus is very much on absolutely maximizing the clean airflow over the top surface of the sidepods. Switching to an overbite plus the Merc style engine cover for managing cockpit losses are their chosen method of accomplishing that. You would expect RB is quite confident they can deal with any inlet losses from the new location so it might genuinely be a fairly conservative design from Red Bulls perspective. Of course they are still clearly hiding lots so perhaps they have a fun surprise or two in store for us.
I am inclined to agree. Gary Anderson who was at the launch suggests something more radical at the nose may appear at Bahrain testing. The panel looks very makeshift and there is no cooling ducts on the nose like there usually are.
He also states that RB failed front crash tests and then would have a relatively uninteresting and long nose seems counterintuitive. Now Anderson isn't the highest authority but it's another voice of suspicion about the nose.
Agree. I think it can be seen even more clearly on this angle. But why do they waste time and money building these mule parts, or are they not included in the budget cap?
The vanity panel is fairly normal, it doesn’t mean the part is fake, it’s part of the design that allows you to swap wings while not having to go through another homologation. Ferrari has had the same setup since 2022 and vanity panels on top look like that.
I am inclined to agree. Gary Anderson who was at the launch suggests something more radical at the nose may appear at Bahrain testing. The panel looks very makeshift and there is no cooling ducts on the nose like there usually are.
He also states that RB failed front crash tests and then would have a relatively uninteresting and long nose seems counterintuitive. Now Anderson isn't the highest authority but it's another voice of suspicion about the nose.
Agree. I think it can be seen even more clearly on this angle. But why do they waste time and money building these mule parts, or are they not included in the budget cap?
a vanity panel covering the true nose is probably not costly at all and even if it is a fake part I guess the trade-off of having the other teams still guessing is worth it in their mind
looking at this, im unsure, if the nosecone goes all the way, it looks almost like an add on panel, the front part, on this picture https://i.imgur.com/ArWpSGO.jpg
Yeas, the real nose could be shorter. I also think the whole sidepod inlet situation could be fake too. They could take off that part of the sidepod wing/mirror and replace it with an underbite inlet, even more aggressive than Aston Martin. The vertical inlet could stay, as it should be just a s-duct like on Ferrari.
I am inclined to agree. Gary Anderson who was at the launch suggests something more radical at the nose may appear at Bahrain testing. The panel looks very makeshift and there is no cooling ducts on the nose like there usually are.
He also states that RB failed front crash tests and then would have a relatively uninteresting and long nose seems counterintuitive. Now Anderson isn't the highest authority but it's another voice of suspicion about the nose.
Agree. I think it can be seen even more clearly on this angle. But why do they waste time and money building these mule parts, or are they not included in the budget cap?
You can see how roughly this vanity panel has been fitted, especially at the bottom of the vanity panel. Obviously you would want as little disturbance in the flow as possible especially at the very nose of the car. Suggests too me they are hiding something, maybe nothing crazy but it just seems to slap dash for me to be the real nose
I am inclined to agree. Gary Anderson who was at the launch suggests something more radical at the nose may appear at Bahrain testing. The panel looks very makeshift and there is no cooling ducts on the nose like there usually are.
He also states that RB failed front crash tests and then would have a relatively uninteresting and long nose seems counterintuitive. Now Anderson isn't the highest authority but it's another voice of suspicion about the nose.
Christian Horner said:
“I think there’s some great innovation on the car as well, which will no doubt get scrutinized over the coming weeks. Creativity has been strong in the team and you can see that in some of the solutions that they’ve come up with. It’s not a conservative evolution — there’s some great innovation on this car.”
Understandably there’s a lot of focus around (a) the sidepod intakes (b) what we *don’t* see here.
But what intrigues me the most so far are what I’ll called the “shoulders” (the humpback canon outlet). This is quite reminiscent of the somewhat makeshift Mercedes 2023 solution - makeshift because it was an adaptation of a car never designed to run with it - which always appeared quite ungainly. It’s therefore a bit surprising to see this on the launch spec of a car that’s evolved from the most dominant car in F1 history.
Clearly they are seeing benefits with how this very sharp separating, let’s say, ‘wall’ is helping the different flow structures or they wouldn’t put it on the car. But it’s very agricultural in nature and now as subtle/smooth as we’ve come to expect from Newey creations. I’m curious to see if it’ll stay or if they find the need to revert to something a bit more conventional here.
I am inclined to agree. Gary Anderson who was at the launch suggests something more radical at the nose may appear at Bahrain testing. The panel looks very makeshift and there is no cooling ducts on the nose like there usually are.
He also states that RB failed front crash tests and then would have a relatively uninteresting and long nose seems counterintuitive. Now Anderson isn't the highest authority but it's another voice of suspicion about the nose.
Reading the thread and can't help but feel like we've all missed the point. Unless the whole sidepod is fake, isn't the biggest change the fact that all radiator spillage will now flow below, rather than up top? At that point, whether the inlets are vertical or horizontal is moot.
Or put another way: why are vertical inlets any more/less likely than horizontal?
Merc zero pod failed because the spillage wasn't directed properly, due to lack of undercut. We haven't seen a car with spillage directed into the undercuts have we?
I think what Wache and Newey have done with the RB20 sidepods has less to do with Mercedes solution. Rather, they have remembered a very promising concept from Nicolo Petrucci - the sidepod wing concept. If the sidepod practically functions as a wing, I think it would also be able to "handle" the disadvantageous effects of the overcut that I feared in a previous post and thus become a positive solution. The increase in height of the CoG can cause some concern, which I think is not insignificant, especially if you look at the very thick bulge that has arisen in the bazooka area, probably because more cooling had to be moved up into the center to implement this concept. I am very curious to see whether all this will pay off, because in my opinion it looks like the CoG has increased significantly. Not that they have "laid an egg in the nest" this time, as the Austrian saying goes.
