Renault R31

[raymondu999]

Did they scrap the idea at the start of the year to have a thin cooling outlet all the way through the bottom of the rear of the engine cover? If what I just said makes sense that is

[Francesc]

[hardingfv32]

What is the beam in front of rear wing being used for? Is it a team or FIA unit?

Brian

[raymondu999]

Huh? All cars have a beam wing. Or are you talking about the small wing in the middle 15cm?

EDIT: I do beg your pardon! I misread it as "beam wing" rather than "beam." Freudian slip. Apologies

[scarbs]

What is the beam in front of rear wing being used for? Is it a team or FIA unit?

Brian

That beam in the pic above is a set up plate for the suspension geometry. Teams machine their own to suit the chassis.

[hardingfv32]

Hand tools: I noticed a medium size (3/8" drive in US) socket drive laying around in a photo with a shape I have never seen before.

In Europe, who are the premier hand tool suppliers that we might find the F1 mechanics using?

Brian

[beelsebob]

Hand tools: I noticed a medium size (3/8" drive in US) socket drive laying around in a photo with a shape I have never seen before.

In Europe, who are the premier hand tool suppliers that we might find the F1 mechanics using?

Brian

From the "just bought an earthcar" thread, a lot of the fixings and tools for getting them open are entirely custom made by the teams.

[PlatinumZealot]

Saw mclaren using some custom wavy shaped T-bar handles to get between the engine parts to pull a few fasteners.

[hardingfv32]

Just simple wrenches and sockets/drives type tools. In the US you would list Snap-on as an example.

Brian

[MIKEY_!]

Huh? All cars have a beam wing. Or are you talking about the small wing in the middle 15cm?

EDIT: I do beg your pardon! I misread it as "beam wing" rather than "beam." Freudian slip. Apologies

so did I

[Richard]

Petrov has given some insight into the in-season development ... or the lack of it. I'm nt sure how objective he is beng though, it seems to be a bit of a rant too. He certainly doesn't like the FEE.

At the beginning of the year, for the first five or six races, we looked really strong. We could not fight with Ferrari, Red Bull or McLaren, but we were quite close to Ferrari and much faster than Mercedes.

"It was very easy for us to pass from Q2 to Q3 using one set of tyres. We didn't even used all the potential or push 100 per cent to get into Q3 - in the first six races it was rather easy.

"But when the windtunnel developments came, the new parts, because of the front exhausts, they didn't work. We worked on the front wing, the rear wing, the diffusers, the floor – but whatever we changed it was useless.

"For about 10 races we didn't have anything, so in fact we have had the same car with which we started the season.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96306

[kalinka]

Let me try to understand his words >
1. They run the same car (aero-wise) for first 6 races. (?)
2. Then came some dev. parts from wind tunnel. They didn't add any performance while they are tryin those parts for next 2-3 races. Without any improvement.
3. Now they were already 8-9 races into the season without succesfull development. That's half of a season already.
4. After that they scrapped curent development and concentrate on 2012, and didn't add anything on the car for the last 9-10 races?

Question marks are there, because it's hard to imagine all that. I rarely follow this car's topic, but other how do, can tell if he's telling the truth. Was there any significant development for them in last 10 races?

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

That's simple : all their updates failed.

[BreezyRacer]

I have to say that I agree with Renault's decision to abandon development, once blown diffusers and forward exit exhaust blowing was banned for next season. I suppose they could have learned by committing to the switch to rear blown diffusers, as they tested during mid season Fridays but it wouldn't surprise me if budget problems led them to rethink a big move like that. It would have likely still left them playing catch up on that front as well, as most other teams had a lot of time in on blown rear diffusers by then.

This illustrates perfectly the risk of going it alone in F1, or any other technical competition. It's pure "hero or zero". Sadly Renault wound up with the zero. If other teams had also pursued forward exit exhausts the joint development that would have taken place may have proved FEE to be superior. However, when you are 1 team fighting a development race against 4 other teams, all going in the same direction of development you have to have one hell of a good idea to just keep up.

Still I'm glad to see Team Renault bring something big, different, and creative to the party. It's made for an interesting technological experiment.

[beelsebob]

I have to say that I agree with Renault's decision to abandon development, once blown diffusers and forward exit exhaust blowing was banned for next season. I suppose they could have learned by committing to the switch to rear blown diffusers, as they tested during mid season Fridays but it wouldn't surprise me if budget problems led them to rethink a big move like that. It would have likely still left them playing catch up on that front as well, as most other teams had a lot of time in on blown rear diffusers by then.

This illustrates perfectly the risk of going it alone in F1, or any other technical competition. It's pure "hero or zero". Sadly Renault wound up with the zero. If other teams had also pursued forward exit exhausts the joint development that would have taken place may have proved FEE to be superior. However, when you are 1 team fighting a development race against 4 other teams, all going in the same direction of development you have to have one hell of a good idea to just keep up.

Still I'm glad to see Team Renault bring something big, different, and creative to the party. It's made for an interesting technological experiment.

One thing I wonder is what if McLaren and Renault had teamed up their concepts... Consider a car that had U-pods, and the exhaust internally being taken under the U-pods, up the outside of the car, and then out under the end of the L. This could then be pointed inwards and downwards to flow under the car just next to the splitter with some careful sculpting of body work. This would conceivably solve renault's problems with the exhaust simply falling out from under the car at low speeds, as the two flows would be being shoved right in, under the car where the reference and step planes join.