CaterhamF1 CT-01 Renault

[beelsebob]

Looks like all cars are converging to the RedBull family line.

Or alternatively, one single car that you've seen that happened to inherit most of the internals of the RB7 has arrived at a body shape that had already been designed to fit around those parts.

[afiq]

The steering arm looks very low, close to or included with the lower wishbone

[beelsebob]

I'm trying to decode exactly what's going on with the rear suspension, and have to admit, I'm struggling. As I see it, red and yellow here are the upper and lower wishbones respectively, and I *think* green is the pull rod... What I can't see, is the drive shaft, or am I missing something?



I'd expect it to be where the cyan line is, but there's nothing there.

[volarchico]

FWD...sort of like the FEE.

[ESPImperium]

Duck F***ing Ugly.

Rumor has it that the FIA are to introduce a mandatory Iron mid season so drivers can iron their clothes on the nose of their cars.

The last 3 seasons havnt had too many nice looking cars, the BGP001 and RB5 and posibly the T128 and R31 but this years class look as if the ugly stick has been out in the design office if that is what the cars are going to look like.

I think the FIA have ballsed up the rules, what they should have done is made the teams follow a chord length from the B-B line to a point on the refrence plane, meaning that tubs would have to be flat bottomed. Im thinking that they should have followed the BGP001 tub look, and made nose cones ton strech more than 300mm over the front wing and no more than 350mm higher than the centre line of the car at their highest point at the intersection of the front wing to the centre line.

Sounds very sensible. Teams must have come up with these platypus nose cones out of convenience.

Here is my interpritation of what the rules should have converged on;

Line A Plane: The Chassis top and bottom from A-A to B-B has to be paralell to each other (Line D, refrence plane) with the nosecone lower plane (Line A) not being able to rise upward more than 50mm from B-B line to Line C.

Line B Plane: From B-B line the nose cone must then slope downwards till it meets the intersection with Line A, the nosecone cannot go more than 300mm infront of Line C. The Intersection variance to the nose hole can be no more than 10mm higher than Line A refrence plane.

The blue circle is where the intersection would be allowable area would be.



Id also make it that the front wing has to be within a certain distance of Line B as well, meaning that designs would all more or less converge on a BGP001 design. However the noses i think would then become thiner and not fat as is the present trend in F1 design.

Also with this design, some overall downforce would be lost due to the ammount of air that would be engaging the T-Tray and thus the diffuser. However this was not the case in 2009 i know with the DDDs, but now, the cars would loose alot of downforce.

[horse]

So is the kink between the nose and the cockpit because the chassis is mandated to be in that position or have they chosen it to poke out over the top rather than under the car? Obviously they could cut the drivers feet off, which would provide room for a neater transition.

Bum of it looks nice and tight, huh? Is there a beam wing in there too? I think it's been banned, right? It just looks like there might be something there?

Also... "Sky, bringing you the ugliest F1 cars ever!"

[beelsebob]

So is the kink between the nose and the cockpit because the chassis is mandated to be in that position or have they chosen it to poke out over the top rather than under the car? Obviously they could cut the drivers feet off, which would provide room for a neater transition.

Bum of it looks nice and tight, huh? Is there a beam wing in there too? I think it's been banned, right? It just looks like there might be something there?

Also... "Sky, bringing you the ugliest F1 cars ever!"

Yes there's a beam wing there, the camera angle just makes it looks like nearly nothing, no beam wings have not been banned.

[jordangp]

I have the magazine, and it is much clearer on there. A lot of the suspension components are blocked from view by the beam wing. the driveshaft is the lowest piece.

[timbo]

Come to think of it, the car reminds me Super Seven a bit

[horse]

... no beam wings have not been banned.

Thanks beelsebob, the ban must be for next year. I guess then the tight sidepods are good for presenting the best possible flow to the beam wing, in that case. Has there been any change to the rules on the diffuser gurney?

It will be intriguing to see if McLaren feel the U-pods are still preferential to the tight packaging as seen on the CT-01.

[jordangp]

... no beam wings have not been banned.

Thanks beelsebob, the ban must be for next year. I guess then the tight sidepods are good for presenting the best possible flow to the beam wing, in that case. Has there been any change to the rules on the diffuser gurney?

It will be intriguing to see if McLaren feel the U-pods are still preferential to the tight packaging as seen on the CT-01.

Beam wings will remain until 2014. Gurney rules have not changed, and McLaren are rumoured to revert to a more conventional/diffrent shaped sidepod, but rumours are rumours

[horse]

Thanks jordangp! My F1 winter holidays have obviously left me well out of the loop. I need to geek up fast!

Overall, I would say that although the car does look a bit plain, it seems that they've developed the whole car this year, whereas last year it looked more like the front was the main priority.

Lets hope it can get them up with the midfield, but I can't help feeling that they may still be a step behind the rest.

[jordangp]

According to Mark Smith (Technical Director), Lewis Butler (Chief Designer) and Marianne Hinson (Head of Aerodynamics) they havn't actually focussed on the whole car, because they can't due to budget and resource restrictions. They claim that their main areas of development have been; the front suspension, due to the new nose, the front section of the sidepods, and the rear bodywork. However they decided to de-prioritise the roll hoop and rear suspension

[afiq]

Sidepod quite a deep undercut for a kers-equipped car.

Brake-duct is also looks very complex. Steering arm enclosed into lower wishbone. Right click and view image for bigger pic

[Owen.C93]

Those are some interesting brake ducts.