Red Bull RB7 Renault

[beelsebob]

The car seems to perform much better in clean air (as against in dirty air) so getting ahead in qualifying will take priority over actual race pace. You could say it is a defensive race strategy. The car is worse than others chasing someone but better than others when being followed.

Hope that made sense.

All cars perform better in clean air rather than dirty air. I don't see any evidence to suggest it is worse at following other cars then say the Ferrari or the Mclaren.

Indeed, in fact at several stages this season we've seen the McLaren utterly destroy its tyres following other cars.

[raymondu999]

The car seems to perform much better in clean air (as against in dirty air) so getting ahead in qualifying will take priority over actual race pace. You could say it is a defensive race strategy. The car is worse than others chasing someone but better than others when being followed.

Hope that made sense.

All cars perform better in clean air rather than dirty air. I don't see any evidence to suggest it is worse at following other cars then say the Ferrari or the Mclaren.

Indeed, in fact at several stages this season we've seen the McLaren utterly destroy its tyres following other cars.

And at Catalunya for example; in the last stint; Lewis kept within 0.5-0.7s of Sebastian for 15 laps. In dirty air.

[BreezyRacer]

Dr. Marko said on RTL that they assembled the wing in half an hour which usually takes an hour. So they didn't fly out the whole wing.

Well the bits needed to make the wing "new" again.

I dont think it matters much what they shipped over, other than that a large portion of the wing was damaged and that RB needed to fix it in order not to run the older spec wing.

So you don't see anything weird in RB not having ANY backup wings (or wing parts) on a three race jaunt?

Also I saw the pics of the wing in Vettel's crash and only one endplate and 1 set of upper elements looked damaged, though the wing broke from the nosecone at the top of the pillars, and cleanly so. The lower element, including the outer vg's looked totally intact. It did look quite repairable but you would think they would have spare elements to do that. Just think .. Singapore, a street race with concrete walls and close racing everywhere, and no spare wings? Very weird to me ..

[timbo]

So you don't see anything weird in RB not having ANY backup wings (or wing parts) on a three race jaunt?

They could fly backups along the way.
It is not unusual for a team to have only a limited number of upgrade parts. After all, they can't reliably predict whether they work as expected or not, so signing off a whole bunch if it doesn't deliver would not work very well.

[QLDriver]

So what happens in the case of an upgrade part that gets broken in qualifying, but there is no equal spec part available? Presumably replacement in Parc Ferme isn't an option?

[myurr]

So what happens in the case of an upgrade part that gets broken in qualifying, but there is no equal spec part available? Presumably replacement in Parc Ferme isn't an option?

In parc ferme you can replace a broken part with one of the same or lower (read older) spec, with the FIAs permission. So a broken part will just mean you replace it with an older part that you do have in stock.

We've seen this happen plenty of times in the past.

[Intego]

So you don't see anything weird in RB not having ANY backup wings (or wing parts) on a three race jaunt?

Also I saw the pics of the wing in Vettel's crash and only one endplate and 1 set of upper elements looked damaged, though the wing broke from the nosecone at the top of the pillars, and cleanly so. The lower element, including the outer vg's looked totally intact. It did look quite repairable but you would think they would have spare elements to do that. Just think .. Singapore, a street race with concrete walls and close racing everywhere, and no spare wings? Very weird to me ..

So, I don't see anything weird in having just one wing per car. It costs time to build and some pieces aren't working per se.
BUT maybe there indeed is emerging something weird with the wings, nosecones, and bolts:

A curious feature of the Red Bull RB7 has emerged, when the team is making set up changes at the front of the car, wing settings for example. It also changes the bolts holding the nose in place. This is not a straight swap however, the team seems to have specific bolts for specific setups, suggesting that each bolt set is for a specific range of aero loads. The more conspiratorial amongst us suggests that this is all to do with the front of the car flexing, but it simply could be something much simpler. What is certain is that Red Bull’s mechanics take great care that the right bolts are used for each setup.

Source: scroll to the end (Suzuka summary)

Also in that article: A tremendous shot of the "diffusor wingies" (my new term for the perforated gurney), obviously made in Spanish GP:

[beelsebob]

Wow, what's most interesting there is that the gurney seems to have a gurney on the end – at the end of the aerofoil shape it seems to have a small section perpendicular to the aerofoil too.

[PhillipM]

It's a flap, with a gurney too.

[raymondu999]

I wonder if the RB8 will have a gurney on THAT gurney

[flynfrog]

I wonder if the RB8 will have a gurney on THAT gurney

yo dawg...


At what point does that gurney become a wing element? I am not terribly familiar with the rules in this area.

[aleks_ader]

I wonder if the RB8 will have a gurney on THAT gurney

[volarchico]

I think "gurney" isn't the best term for this feature. A gurney is a small perpendicular tab appended to the trailing edge of a surface. These seem to most definitely be airfoil shapes themselves... so maybe "diffuser flap"?

[dren]

Yeah, it certainly is a wing on top of the diffuser. This small wing also has a gurney on it. The low pressure under the small wing will increase diffuser efficiency. The gurny will help as well.

[MIKEY_!]

How big can they make these flaps. What's the wording like in the regulations? Is it similar to the gurney rules for the rear wing. With this gurney on gurney stuff... how many flaps can they stick on there?