Red Bull RB7 Renault

[Intego]

He does those analyses in his spare time, give him a chance. (But as Raymond stated, Twitter is your friend ...)

[scarbs]

Splitters have been flexing for years, last year Red Bull flexed the splitter to allow the rake\low front wing set up. Teams were forced to alter the splitter following a FIA clarification, there was a stiffer deflection test, demand for a longer (1 meter) front plank section and a rewording of the support strut rules.

This does not however prevent flex at higher loads, if the flex comes from the surrpotr strut. If the splitter flexes along its length by the carbon layup allowing a measured amount of flex, then this is legal.

Clearly Red Bull run some 15cm of rear ride height and very little front ride height. The geometry means that the splitter is in the way, so it has to flex.

If the precedent of last years FIA intervention, then a further clarificaiton may be published with new tests, but the car wil remain legal.

Scarbs

[Lurk]

And rumours of RB not respecting the RRA are gathering steam due to this...

Even otherwise stirs resentment about Red Bull One wonders how it is possible in the context of cost reduction plans to build a special Monza kit. "Three sets of wings, cover and lower floors cost in the production of 800,000 euros. For this, the wind tunnel costs. For us it would be irresponsible to sacrifice so much money for a race. Since we have to save elsewhere," expects Mercedes before team boss Ross Brawn.

Excuse the rough translation guys.

800,000€ per race is 15,200,000€ per season to produce specific spare parts. Their budget is more than 250M€ so it's 6% of the budget allocated to produce race-specific pieces. I'm not sure that is that much...

[feynman]

250million would be a team budget, not the budget for building cars.

Everything from the girls in purchasing, the old bloke that changes bulbs in the factory and cuts the grass, and everything from marketing, airfares, rent, rates and taxes comes off the top before you get anywhere near to the money left over to make cars or turn on the wind tunnel.

Anyone care to speculate how much of any arbitrary 250mill per year ends up driving round a track.

[Ferraripilot]

Anyone care to speculate how much of any arbitrary 250mill per year ends up driving round a track.

Hah. I believe a American football team owner said recently that football would be a great business if they didn't have to play those silly games. I suppose F1 can be the same at times.....

[raymondu999]

As I've said in another thread, could Red Bull Technology (which is a separate entity to Red Bull Racing) sell those packages to Red Bull Racing at 10 euro per piece?

[Richard]

If the splitter flexes along its length by the carbon layup allowing a measured amount of flex, then this is legal.

The flex will be a combination of the strut/bib carbon layup, plus the wood plank bolted to it.

[PaulB]

The FIA reglement says, thet the front tyre width musst lie between 305 and 355mm. Does anybody knows, how withd the Pirelli front tyres are?

[ESPImperium]

And rumours of RB not respecting the RRA are gathering steam due to this...

Even otherwise stirs resentment about Red Bull One wonders how it is possible in the context of cost reduction plans to build a special Monza kit. "Three sets of wings, cover and lower floors cost in the production of 800,000 euros. For this, the wind tunnel costs. For us it would be irresponsible to sacrifice so much money for a race. Since we have to save elsewhere," expects Mercedes before team boss Ross Brawn.

Excuse the rough translation guys.

800,000€ per race is 15,200,000€ per season to produce specific spare parts. Their budget is more than 250M€ so it's 6% of the budget allocated to produce race-specific pieces. I'm not sure that is that much...

Its the ammount of time developing the race specific parts that is the real cost, so if it costs €800,000 for the production of the parts, id recon that it cost €8m to do the R&D for those parts in CFD and the Tunnel tests. Now you have a figure of €158m. And if you have a budget of €285m whitch Red Bull had last year, thats half the costs gone witout taking into account for other costs like staffing, upgrades to facilities and facility running costs, let alone budgeting in the R&D for getting the car for the next season to be included as well. It costs at least €625,000 for a F1 standard chassis/survival cell/tub to be built and finished without anything added like power steering, suspension or wiring looms for a comparison cost for another part of the car.

Teams usually have 3 special configs;

Special 1: Monaco/Hungaroring/Singapore (ultra high downforce without worrying for drag)
Special 2: Canada/Spa (Super low downforce but keeping some drag)
Special 3: Monza (Ultra low downforce/ultra low drag)

The rest of the tracks are either mediumn to high or medium to low and theese parts get the most usage in the season, and this is where there is more to be gained from R&D and getting more from the car.

[MIKEY_!]

I think they made the splitter flex to get the needed rake, but I'm no expert.
(And still it is not proven whether there's something going on at all.)

They raise the rear end via the rear suspension so the splitter tip is actually slightly higher than usual (although then they would lower the front suspension to compensate) so no flexing is required.

[Intego]

I think they made the splitter flex to get the needed rake, but I'm no expert.
(And still it is not proven whether there's something going on at all.)

They raise the rear end via the rear suspension so the splitter tip is actually slightly higher than usual (although then they would lower the front suspension to compensate) so no flexing is required.

Previously on this thread:

Clearly Red Bull run some 15cm of rear ride height and very little front ride height. The geometry means that the splitter is in the way, so it has to flex.

[ringo]

The splitter is like this simply because of the design of the car. Redbull has more splitter area than the other teams.
The regs don't control that aspect. The tub design does.

[BreezyRacer]

Has anyone seen the pics of scratches on the undertray that leads to all this speculation? I haven't found them anywhere and that video just don't get it. Also consider that Webber had the front wing wedged under the car's splitter for a good half mile or more, and considerable speed, maybe 120 mph or so. I can imagine that the undertray could get quite buggered from that alone.

[hardingfv32]

How does The splitter bend without something touching the ground?

The blank is there, won't it exceed the wear limits?

Brian

[MIKEY_!]

I think they can have a small titanium bit at the front of the plank. Remember when Hamilton's splitter broke at Australia and didn't exceed wear limits.