Ok, this may question may ruffle a few feathers but here it goes...
Which car had the best chassis this year? This can include, stiffness, adjustablity, innovation, weight, race results etc
My vote would go to Ferrari and their multi thickness floor aiding in lightness and stiffness and so complex to engineer in carbon fibre. Anyone know anything more about it? I'm not sure if other teams have adopted this technology yet.
"Most improved" would have to go to Super Aguri and their modified Arrows chassis from 2002-3? Crazy, they went from being 6 sec/lap off the pace to within 1 second within only 1 season. Incredible!
My vote would go to Ferrari and their multi thickness floor aiding in lightness and stiffness and so complex to engineer in carbon fibre
Where did you find that information from?
I don't really know much about the specifications of each chassis to cast a vote. But as for car, I would say the Renault R26 at the start of the season, but the 248 F1 at the latter stage of the season.
I saw the floor pan laying in the pit garage after saturday practice at the 06 Montreal GP. It looked all wavy and distorted so i asked one of the pit crew members and that's what he told me. Then i had that information backed up a month ago by a Ferrari buff at an R and M auctions event. This guy owns a 2004 F1 and has a lot of contact with the factory for maintenance, updates etc. That's the only info i had and i found it to be quite interesting as one never hears much about chassis innovations.
Its a toughie, because it really has been a tale of two halves. First the R26, then the F248.
At first I was going to say the Ferrari. But, I'm going to say the Renault.
What swayed my vote was that Renault won the constructors championship. And when you look at that you have to remember that (lets assume Michael and Fernando did an almost equal job for their respecive teams) Felipe Massa really did a better job fer Ferrari than Fisi did at Renault this year. So you could argue that Ferrari had the better driver pairing, but Renault still won.
Its really tough, but I think I'll stay with Renault.
Silence is golden when you don't know a good answer.
I have to give my vote ot the Renault R26. It went through an entire season, and in the end was just as competitive as anytime. Considering the setback of the mass damper, and that Alonso was on cruise control for almost the entire race at Brazil, it's an impressive chassis.
I would say that all chasis would be nearly as equal because of the FIA safety rule restrictions. So with that, I don't think that there is "the best" chasis.
This is a really tough question to answer, as it's nearly impossible to know which chassis was the best.
One could make a great argument for either the R26 or the 248F1. But the truth of the matter is that you can't really tell. Either one could've been made to seem better because of the engine, tires, etc.
And on the other hand, the Honda RA106, the MP4-21 or any other chassis could've been just as good, if not better, yet been held back because of a poor engine or bad tire choices, etc.
So I guess it just comes down to results. For that reason, you gotta say the "best chassis" was the R26. You gotta give it up to the one that won.
But I still think that at their respective best, the total 248F1 package of chassis, engine and tires was quicker than the R26 package, and just as reliable.
Taken purely in isolation, each chassis is a winner in it's own right. They are incredibly rigid and light. They also have to pass the tough FIA impact tests. Each chassis is an expensive work of art, be it Ferrari or Renault, or even SA.
But how the chassis is integrated with the other car components, interacts, and reaches a potential, that is another thing. So a chassis in isolation is just a hunk of carbon fiber laying in the back of a shed. But a chassis with engine and bodywork and suspension and systems connected and operating peoperly is what is hard.
I dont how you could rate a teams chassis, if we term the chassis as the sum of parts that ar enot an engine or tyres. So we could say the suspension, aerodynamics, gearbox, electronics an dother mechanical parts.
Stiffness - I doubt even the teams could compare this...
Adjustablity - Both teams ran the season with pretty much the same basic "chassis", each had major tyre devleopments and technology bans (flex wing and mass dampers) to contend with. Each ended up pretty much as competitive as each other, so theres a draw here.
Innovation - Mass Dampers were a Renault 2005 innovation, and we know both teams ran with them in 2006. Aroudn the res tof the cars there wa slittle innovative design showing, both teams cars a derivatives of their forebears. I would add BMW as one option here, as they introduced so much new aerodynamically.
Weight - I think this is close, but Ferrari probably have the upper hand, having been used to running a lighter engine for so long compared to Renault. Even though the "engine weight" tables were equalled this year.
race results - this woudl be a contentious point, it was so dominated by tyres, renaults adoption of the later banned mass damper.
Overall I think both Ferrari and Renault were inherently equal this year, certainly neither team had a big advantage overall.
Notable mentions go to:
Super Aguri who kept an old monocoque updated with new bits at each race and embarassed other teams with brand new cars and more resources.
BMW for their constant improvement and challenging aero.
Bad points go to:
Mclaren failed to turn a car easy on tyres into a winner, suspect aero in fast turns also pointed to a team a bit lost in technical direction.
Williams, yet another car with poor aero from the outset, which ruined a good mechanical package (reliability aside) and a great engine.
Honda - lost in aerodynamics and fired the best people they had to sort it (Willis & Toet)
Toyota - still squandering resources and a questionable technical leadership at the corporate level.
RedBull - STR: stopped 2006 devleopment so soon (STR never even got going), it made turning up at races an insult.
MF1 - lack of resources are still holdign back a good technical package.
scarbs wrote:
Honda - lost in aerodynamics and fired the best people they had to sort it (Willis & Toet)
When this first happend I would agree with you 110%
However, now I dont. JB scored more points than anyone from Hungary onwards, and Hondas 2nd half season was championship worthy, well lets say JB's was, may not have had the pace to challenge, but as a team they were there.
Best chassis?
Between the R26, F248, RA106.
However, the R26 wins on the fact that it was quickest in wet and dry and in between. And of course probably strongest... (alonso used the same tub all season)
Easy really, if Alonso indeed used the same chassis through the season, didn't that chassis score more points than any other single chassis? And since F1 is all about points and not fastest laptimes or anything..
Formula 1, 57, died Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007
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Will be held in the hearts of millions forever
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scarbs wrote:
Honda - lost in aerodynamics and fired the best people they had to sort it (Willis & Toet)
When this first happend I would agree with you 110%
However, now I dont. JB scored more points than anyone from Hungary onwards, and Hondas 2nd half season was championship worthy, well lets say JB's was, may not have had the pace to challenge, but as a team they were there.
I don't really think that that means too much. If you look at their 2005 season, they scored more points in any one race in the second half of the season, than they did, colectively, in the first half of the season.
Jokes aside, I think that the lead time is much greater than a race or two (to avoid confusion let me clarify that - I don't think that you would begin to see the results immideately after one person leaves the team. Generally speaking, (I would assume) that a package for a given race is prepared at least a month or two in advance. I would guess that even the RA107 will be tough to modify because the foundation for that chassis must've been layed down while Willis was still working for Honda. This is why Newey couldn't do his magic on RB2.)
Does anybody know if there are any rumors re: Willis?
