So Lotus focused on the correlation of tools. Id asume thats their wind tunnel, CFD and simulator now.Forza wrote:James Allison wrote: Q: What’s the state of play with upgrades? Are there more to come?
JA: We are still experimenting with the latest evolution of our Coandă system. This delivers the same downforce as the one we introduced in Korea and used in the Abu Dhabi race, but does not sap as much power from the engine. We trialled this evolution in Abu Dhabi, but opted to go for the known quantity of the Korea-spec. Now we have the young driver test behind us, we are confident that this evolution will assist with around an extra six horsepower for the last two races of the season. We also have a little aero upgrade to the front wing too.
Q: How useful was the young driver test?
JA: We were able to evaluate three drivers and get different input for the car which is always useful, but primarily the test allowed us to calibrate our factory based tools we use to assess what is good and what is bad for developing the car. We were able to measure our simulations against reality by performing correlation tests at the track. The young driver test gave us a brilliant opportunity to catch up with the backlog of these correlation tests that have built up over the course of the year to make sure that the design direction we’ve taken from our factory-based tools is not leading us astray. This is valuable as we approach our final two races of the season, but also for design developments heading into next season too.
As i am led to belive that Lotus will be running 3 cars a session like McLaren now with the simulator running at all 5 sessions a GP weekend with Prost or Mortara at the wheel same way Turvey or Paffett do at Mclaren when a car is on track. I also belive that Red Bull are starting to follow a similar route as well with a driver at the wheel of their simulator, Williams started doing the same mid season with Klein at the wheel when their cars are on track. Im not sure if Ferrari do it, but id like to think they will have Rigon at the wheel most sessions in their simulator and i think that Heartley does the same for Mercedes as well,
Leaving Caterham, Marussia, HRT, Force India, Toro Rosso & Sauber all with out this tool. However Toro Rosso & Caterham will have this sorted soon as they are having a simulator built at both their factories, and HRT are going to have a Williams supplied and built one in the new year as well.
The other three could be left behind if they dont have a simulator soon as i think a Simulator doing the sessions in real time is a massive tool for the teams as it means they can check their simulations against real data and this will force a better development path on the team as a whole. I believe simulators could become more powerful than CFD in the next 5 to 10 years in F1.
