Red Bull RB7 Renault

[Lindz]

If there is any hint that it could be deemed a double diffuser it will be thrown out by the scutineers (or by the FIA after Ferrari / McLaren protest).

Double diffusers effectively lower the pressure of air under the car by giving it an extra path to escape.

This looks just like it is blowing [something] over the top of the diffuser to help energize the flow as it exits. In theory this will draw more air through the diffuser at a higher velocity, which will make it more effective. It's a miniature version of what the R31 appears to be doing. Blackout has mentioned it before, and in fact it's been on the car since launch.

About that point, the car was launched with external-exiting exhausts. If this channel has been on since launch, it's hard to say it is fed by the exhaust. It's of course possible that they did a 'dummy' version at launch and then fitted a newly shaped floor where these tunnels were fed by the exhaust as well, the split we don't see as it can be under the 'cover' that appears to just route the exhausts backwards to the diffuser.

Again... I am just thinking laterally here, I don't have any hard evidence. Just 'possibilites'...

[Richard]

The mysterious openings that some of us have talked about:

They are trying out different exhaust exits.

[ergenomic]

[quote="imightbewrong"]Please watch these on youtube for the full hd experience, NICE!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56VDcq6j6SE[/youtube]

The front wing is flexing again. Check out between 2:00 and 3:38 in the video. The wing isn't just flexing but the wing is also actually swaying!!! The whole wing assembly is rocking to the side around the corners... there is flex in the pillars mounting the wing to the nose - surely this is the secret to how the outside edge of the wing gets so close to the ground in the high speed corners?

Obviously still testing but definitely going to be another controversial year. All the focus on exhausts means we have forgotten about the biggest controversy from last season. Here we go again...

[madly]

It's a little redundant but I corrected gamma of very interesting Blackout observations. One may see a little more dark details.




HiRes: http://www.sliwinski.priv.pl/f1/rb7_jarez_02.jpg

[segedunum]

There's nothing there that's a double diffuser, but they are probably outlets along the lines Lindz has indicated.

They could be an additional exhaust positioning, they could be trying to divert some exhaust gas away or they could just be trying to concentrate some airflow in a small area. It could also be a cooling outlet that they're using the heat from. Renault are doing something similar and there's been an interesting bit of speculation as to what they might be doing there. Whatever, they're getting into some fairly small details and tinkering as to where they want things to be.

No surprise the wing is flexing. It did it last season and I see no reason why it wouldn't do it this. It depends on how much downforce the front has to create to keep up with the rear and maintain balance. If it's flexing it's probably not a great sign for everyone else.

Still difficult to tell exactly, but I thought they'd do something around the nose together with the wing flexing last year. It will help a great deal with aerodynamic efficiency, drag and getting the most out of KERS.

[adrianjordan]

I thought they'd do something around the nose together with the wing flexing last year. It will help a great deal with aerodynamic efficiency, drag and getting the most out of KERS.

What sort of thing did you have in mind? As the nose has to include the forward crash structure I would think it would be near impossible to have it flex and pass the crash tests.

Then again, as Sam Michael (I think) said, F1 is now so advanced that very little is impossible...

[Richard]

The front wing is flexing again.

Wing moving is nothing new, they are very thin and subject to high loads.

What is interesting is that the nose appears to have a lot of movement. Put your finger on the Casio logo and you can the nose move relative to the camera. It looked stationary in all the onboard shots last year.

However, we don't know how that camera was mounted. It's not in the usual position, perhaps strapped on the nose as a temp thing, hence the camera moved?

Also we never had that shot last year, only a lower res image from the airbox camera, so maybe the nose did move that much last year after all?

[bill shoe]

blackout-- Great photo set on this mysterious hole/duct. I don't have any idea what it is, but the shape of the outlet is distinctly similar to a mini-DD as opposed to any exhaust outlet or cooling duct I've seen.

I guess the most boring possible answer is that it's some kind of cooling vent for rear dampers or KERS that simply ends up looking like a mini-DD due to the bodywork dimensional restrictions in that area.

EDIT: The red rectangle in the rear view is probably the starter hole horizontal slit.

[Raptor22]

In 1994 the Ford Zetec in the back of the B194 was downon power but had superb torque and a very useful power band

I know. One wonders why they ditched that the next season for a more powerful Renault V10.

Amazing how many people can't grok the connection between engine power, fuel consumption and heat and how increasing power is the biggest difference you can make with an engine......

Because Ford was not putting in any money to develop the Zetec. Benetton in 1993 and 1994 paid for the development of the engine and its ECU. It was not a "Free" engine.
The Renault was free...

money talks.
Then the was the political aspect of beating an established team, Williams, with the same engine.
But the desire for Renault engines was mostly because they were free. Free engines means more money for chassis and electronics development.
AGain you display a complete lack of understanding of engine design. Maximum power is a function of rpm and efficiency. The higher the engine revs the more power it produces. You loose power through driving other systems and the exhaust. There are other decisions that are teakn in the design phase that involves profiling the breathing of the engine to ensure max power and power band. The most powerful engines can be very peaky while an engine 5% down on power my produce more torque through the rpm range and provide better acceleration.

How often is an F1 car accelerating?

[Lindz]

Why is everyone jumping on seg recently? Slow week?

To say that an F1 engine that has more torque is better for accelerating is ignoring a lot of things.

Snipped from an article: *The transmission amplifies or multiplies the torque coming from the engine by a factor equal to the gear ratio. So to determine how much the car is accelerating at a particular instant, you have to know both the torque output of the engine as well as the gear ratio.*

As the transmission gear gets higher (the ratio gets lower) it is much more important for the engine to have horsepower, since that power is now transmitted much more efficiently to the wheels (vs. the torque the engine makes). Basically, at a high enough speed, horsepower is what will keep your car accelerating.

With the huge Cd that F1 cars have to overcome, peak power is even more important for both top speed and for acceleration in med-fast corners.

You can't say that an engine in car A with more power will ONLY use that power to push it's top speed x% more than car B. It will in every fast corner be using more force to accelerate.


Of course this is ignoring a ton of OTHER variables such as powerband shape, peak rpm, fuel consumption, etc.

I'm just saying... it's dumb to say "Renault engine has more torque, therefore the Red Bull has better acceleration."

[clarkiesyeah]

Please watch these on youtube for the full hd experience, NICE!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56VDcq6j6SE[/youtube]

The front wing is flexing again. Check out between 2:00 and 3:38 in the video. The wing isn't just flexing but the wing is also actually swaying!!! The whole wing assembly is rocking to the side around the corners... there is flex in the pillars mounting the wing to the nose - surely this is the secret to how the outside edge of the wing gets so close to the ground in the high speed corners?

Obviously still testing but definitely going to be another controversial year. All the focus on exhausts means we have forgotten about the biggest controversy from last season. Here we go again...

I saw this pic of the RB3. Look at the front wing. Funny how because that car wasn't a potential championship contender, there was never a word about it in 2007.
So Mr Newey has been working on the idea for at least 4 years, hard to catch up what he must have learned.

[mx_tifoso]

I feel bad for all of the engineers who work their butt's off only for someone like Adrian Newey to get all of the credit.

[Robbobnob]

I totally agree, but then again they are also lucky to witness his genius!

[Lindz]

I'm a car designer (profession) and no one in the studio gets credit for a deeign except the director/cheif designer. It's part of the job. Either you move up the ladder (politics), are happy working for your boss, or you jump ship to another company to advance your carreer. Newey did the same thing. Besides, SOMEONE needs to be the 'face' of the design team and take responsibility for both the success and the failure.

Bottom line: For what we get paid to do... don't feel bad that we don't get credit for everything we've done. Those who need to know, know.

[marcush.]

I think there is two sort of guys:the ones who sit in the chair moaning they should be the ones to be applauded and then there are those who really enjoy to contribute to the success of the operation and know their worth even if they are not mentioned on every other occasion.