Red Bull RB8 Renault

[RB7ate9]

Yes, overheat.

Shame that he didn't really get full KERS back. When it was first talked about on the team radio, Webber used some of the KERS down the start/finish straight after the message. It was apparent that pace was steady until that point.

[Hobbs04]

This has been on my mind recently, with all the flexi wing debates. We have front wings bending down, tilting back, etc. I noticed in Japan the rear end of RB8 looked odd but I couldn't figure out why. Re watching Japanese gp it appears the rear wing end plates are bulging out at speed. Almost like the rear wing squats under load. This may also be the DDRS packaging but watching India gp today it seems like the bulging has gone away. I might be crazy and it might be coincidence but thought could there be any benefit to flex rear wings end plates?

[variante]

So now it is someone who saw some TV PICTURES , with a small metal piece being inserted, with WHAT SEEMS TO BE a hydraulic link?
The car was scrutinied . Why start rumours?

That piece was noticed saturday and brought to italian tv spectator's attention BEFORE the race. After seeing what happened to Vettel during the race, that engineer's supposition seemed totally legit. That's it. If the car has been prooved to be legal, well, end of the story.

And as for Newey. He has never told lies before, to my knowledge, so why insinuate he is lying now? It was obvious that the skid block was rubbing. So what? That is what it is there for....to prevent the floor from rubbing the ground. It is not the first car to be seen sparking.

There's a huge difference between a liar and someone who wants to keep his team's solutions secret...

BTW, those sparks were clearly "unnatural", which means that they were caused by something... something like debris on the track, a mechanical failure, or an adjustement of the ride height.

(and the skid block is not there to prevent the floor from rubbing the ground; it is there to make sure that NOTHING rubs the ground, not even the skid itself (with few mm of tolerance))

[Owen.C93]

Ferrari mentioned it only happened with DRS. I'm just thinking is that even possible? Reduced aero load on the rear will only reduce the height of anything infront of the front wheels if anything surely?

[raymondu999]

It will do two things:
A) Decrease rear downforce, increasing rear ride height
B) Increase straightline speed, thus increasing front downforce and decreasing front ride height.

Don't forget those things are set up very marginally anyways

[elliotts21]

Okay, Haven't been looking at this forum since RB introduced their DDRS, but I notice that when the flap is up (and down, actually), the flap end plates protrude above the wing end plate height. Assuming the wing end plates are at the maximum height, couldn't that constitute a violation (per 3.18.1: Any such variation of incidence maintains compliance with all of the bodywork regulations.)? Especially since the flap end plates are so large specifically so they can cover a larger DDRS intake?

Not saying it is a big deal, but it is the only car I have noticed it on. . .

[hollus]

You mean this

and this.

The Red Bull is the only car I have seen it on.

[aral]

BTW, those sparks were clearly "unnatural", which means that they were caused by something... something like debris on the track, a mechanical failure, or an adjustement of the ride height.

(and the skid block is not there to prevent the floor from rubbing the ground; it is there to make sure that NOTHING rubs the ground, not even the skid itself (with few mm of tolerance))

Other cars also spark when the skid blocks hit the ground.

[Flanker27]

we only reported what was said during the gp.

dear gilgen, shelly, munudeges etc: the user Aancora showed one of the images we are talking about in the previous page...

[aral]

dear gilgen, shelly, munudeges etc: the user Aancora showed one of the images we are talking about in the previous page...

That picture shows nothing, other than maybe an adjuster being used, somewhere on the car, at some time. Without knowing every tool in the engineers toolbox, how can you say that it is a hydraulic device being inserted, and even if it was, so what?
There may well be some new technical innovation on the Red Bull, and if so, I would love to see what it is, but until then, it appears to be just speculation.

[mzivtins]

I was under the impression that the leading edge of the tea-tray area isn't there to satisfy regulation, and being titanium lined would just be a good 'just in case' something happened, a lot like the underside tips of the front wing, they spark also. I could imagine raw carbon bodywork on a leading edge rubbing the racing surface would cause the carbon to de-laminate almost, and become destroyed.

I don't see any 'FACTS' in any posts that prove what was done to the leading edges or anything about adjustments, and the sparks were only seen on one side of the car, this would really be a poor setup to have the car that unbalanced intentionally surely?
To me these kind of things can happen, a part can become loose, or battered over race distance by the repeated running of the curbs etc. Vibration is HUGE in an F1 car. We have seen in before in red bull when the front wing had parts that collapsed on both webber and vettels cars earlier this year causing them to pit and change.

[Richard]

The facts are that an interesting device was seen being used to adjust suspension. No one know what it is. Its a simple question, just a shame that the conversation leaps to cheating. Its also a shame that users asking the question are pilloried for asking.

This is meant to be tech forum, so lets focus on the tech matters, ie what is that device. Try to keep it rational please, fevered speculation will be sent to the fanboy thread.

[aancora]

the user Aancora showed one of the images we are talking about in the previous page...

That picture shows nothing, other than maybe an adjuster being used, somewhere on the car, at some time. Without knowing every tool in the engineers toolbox, how can you say that it is a hydraulic device being inserted, and even if it was, so what?
There may well be some new technical innovation on the Red Bull, and if so, I would love to see what it is, but until then, it appears to be just speculation.

I'm searching the complete video

[amouzouris]

It wasn't the first time Red Bull has been accused of changing the ride height! in the beginning of 2010 there was a big fuss about it again!

[munudeges]

dear gilgen, shelly, munudeges etc: the user Aancora showed one of the images we are talking about in the previous page...

It doesn't look like any hydraulic device at all. It looks like an allen key variant of some kind. There's nothing there that tells us what it might have be used for, let alone for suspension adjustment.

We're going to need to see a heck of a lot more, because if they were doing this people would have been jumping up and down at this all season. They were accused of it in 2010 and 2011. Strangely it only starts doing the rounds when the Red Bull looks uncatchable.