Red Bull RB8 Renault

[raymondu999]

I'm no engineer. Will someone please explain why woodgrains and wooden screws mean they'll be making forward steps overnight again?

[Adrian Newby]

Is that wood grain I see on the pullrod cover? Old-school rapid prototyping?

Most of the car is actually whittled by hand. Newey is old school.

Woodscrews too

This is great, I can head up to Home Depot and get parts to make my own F1 car!

[forty-two]

I'm bored.

What I find interesting here is that they've seen fit to mount some chicken wire in the mouth of the mail slot vent, but no such filter seems to be mounted in front of the lower vent. Although, I suppose there might be something mounted upstream of this vent on the nosecone.

Surely the lower vent is at least as likely if not more, to have bits of debris flicked into it?

Perhaps the chicken wire is there to draw our eyes to it, or perhaps it's there to make us THINK that they're trying to draw our eyes to it...

[Crucial_Xtreme]

I'm no engineer. Will someone please explain why woodgrains and wooden screws mean they'll be making forward steps overnight again?

It looks like wood to me obviously. But what makes me feel certain that it's wood is the wood screws. They're not there by coincidence. But the wood grain look could be cause by stereolitography or other 3D printing methods, although I believe it's wood.

[Adrian Newby]

I'm no engineer. Will someone please explain why woodgrains and wooden screws mean they'll be making forward steps overnight again?

It means they are constantly trying out new bits in search of better performance. Even outpacing their own production capabilities.

[forty-two]

Out of interest, is there any reason why they should not use wood for that part?

If it's not a structural part, and has no loads other than aero placed upon it, surely wood is a pretty useful medium?

Easy to shape, cheap, light (depending upon which wood and what thickness)?

Or perhaps the woodgrain you see there is as a result of the part being moulded in a wooden mould?

Ever noticed woodgrain on concrete, that'll be from the wooden shuttering used when the concrete was poured.

[raymondu999]

I'm no engineer. Will someone please explain why woodgrains and wooden screws mean they'll be making forward steps overnight again?

It means they are constantly trying out new bits in search of better performance. Even outpacing their own production capabilities.

I get that now. But how will this translate to them making a forward step? Do they bring carpentry tools along or something? Honest question.

[Adrian Newby]

I don't think that one little wooden part is any giant step forward. It is most likely a quick fix for something that didn't work as expected, or something they saw they could do better. Or maybe they just broke/forgot to pack that bit, or they don't have any spares so they are saving the CF versions for the race.

I'm sure they have quite a nice toolbox! No, seriously, they probably do have a miscellaneous general tools collection just in case.

[Adrian Newby]

Out of interest, is there any reason why they should not use wood for that part?

If it's not a structural part, and has no loads other than aero placed upon it, surely wood is a pretty useful medium?

Easy to shape, cheap, light (depending upon which wood and what thickness)?

Or perhaps the woodgrain you see there is as a result of the part being moulded in a wooden mould?

Ever noticed woodgrain on concrete, that'll be from the wooden shuttering used when the concrete was poured.

Dude, that is one creepy avatar.

It is definitely a wooden part. You can see the thickness where the pullrod goes through it. It think wood is a great material for a quickly made, small, no-load part like that. But is not the optimum weight or durability you would want from a part long-term.

[mclaren777]

Surely the lower vent is at least as likely if not more, to have bits of debris flicked into it?

The lower vent doesn't have anything protecting it (so Webber surely filled it with grass yesterday) but it's more important to screen off the upper vent because you don't want rocks/debris getting into the pedal box or drive compartment.

[forty-two]

While I am on the topic, who is to say that those are wood screws? All we can see is the screw heads.

The shanks of these screws could be any type, they could very well be machine screws, and in fact I would bet that they are, otherwise the material into which they are attached behind this item would also have to be wood, or something like it at least!

[forty-two]

Surely the lower vent is at least as likely if not more, to have bits of debris flicked into it?

The lower vent doesn't have anything protecting it (so Webber surely filled it with grass yesterday) but it's more important to screen off the upper vent because you don't want rocks/debris getting into the pedal box or drive compartment.

How do you know that the upper vent lands in the pedal box? For all we know, it's being ducted somewhere to do something clever?

Similarly, we don't know where the exit for the bottom vent might be. It could very well be an area where they wouldn't want debris getting to, but they feared that putting a shiny grille in front of it might draw unwanted attention to it.

Or maybe the top and bottom vents are dead ends to draw all our eyes away from the enormous vacuum cleaner they have attached to the floor of the car, or whatever other tricks they might have up their sleeves.

[forty-two]

Dude, that is one creepy avatar.

It is definitely a wooden part. You can see the thickness where the pullrod goes through it. It think wood is a great material for a quickly made, small, no-load part like that. But is not the optimum weight or durability you would want from a part long-term.

Creepy avatar... I think that's a bit of a case of Pot calling the Kettle black there!

I don't doubt that the part might be wood. In fact I see no reason for it not to be. I'm just saying that the woodgrain effect might be that it was formed using a wooden pattern or mould.

[myurr]

High Res. Right click>view image

What's there before the centela slot in the beam wing? Pipe, wiring, reflections?

It's a mini shark fin, separating the air flow between the two halves of the car all the way up to the beam wing.

[Adrian Newby]

Yep, looks like it is molded into the gearbox cover.