A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
turbof1 wrote:Placeholder/test floor. Usually teams start out simple to get track mileage and data and flesh out the car later on. Nobody has until now been keen to show anything out of the ordinary in the floor/diffuser area, and Ferrari is traditionally very keen to keep secrets. You'll see updates seen enough.
Right, I agree, but interesting to see that the placeholders of others (Mercedes, Renault etc) have about a million tyre squirt slots.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” - George Bernard Shaw
I don't want to be a pain in the ass and say same thing again, but i'm a little disappointed by Ferrari. I had better expectation from them especially at the front end of the car, more accurate at front wing and nose. I mean it's pretty basic from last year, even much bulkier than last year for which i'm surprised. I think a lot of team had used almost same nose design from last year so that's a huge disappointment for me because i expected team like Ferrari and other top dogs to bring something new in this area after those years when it had proved that they miss something because cannot fight with Mercs
Another interesting thing is the shark fin. Now we can draw an conclusion and say it will be a fight in aero aspects between shark fin engineering from Ferrari, McLaren, Renault vs Mercedes classical design and Williams which is powered by Mercedes and maybe they have some inside or so at german team.
I didn't expect shark for ferrari even if they used on F10 but since then it was classical and i thought they will keep it. Now it's up to red bull... what they had opted .
We also see a huge detailed work on sidepods area and until now just Merc did a great detailed work on sidepods area which is also a interest thing. We have to top teams working and bringing new things on same area of the car that's indicate an area where they think is a huge potential to gain.
Another aspect even if i don't know for sure if it's bad or good. i intend to say a little bit bad because from a team like ferrari, personally have huge expectations that they will work very very hard on all aspect and try to bring something new, better from last year. That aspect is diffuser actually the shape of it. I'm not 100% but from what i saw i think the shape of it is almost identical with last year, of course with all changes to fit 2017 regulation.
As i said in the first part of post, i'm a bit disappointed with Ferrari, i think they could have done more with nose, diffuser and small things but overall it's good, it's good to see Ferrari back on track with a detailed area of a new car !! As Renault boss said, we have to wait until Australia to be sure, a lot of things will change in those cars ! So just fix a month from now till first day of the weekend. But Ferrari , McLaren and i think also Renault can do something in Mercedes vs Red Bull war.
Aesthetically, I think the short wheelbase looks good. But if they're already planning on a b-spec with a long wheelbase, I wonder why they didn't design it to that length in the first place?
Favorite Team: Scuderia Ferrari
Favorite Driver: Nico Hülkenberg
Clipsy, if you believe the diffusers on any cars are what are going to be on them come Melbourne, and are relevant on a launch car, it explains your reputation score. They are one thing that is very easy to bolt on and off with a basic testing spec vs the proper one.
clipsy1H wrote:I had better expectation from them especially at the front end of the car, more accurate at front wing and nose. I mean it's pretty basic from last year, even much bulkier than last year for which i'm surprised. I think a lot of team had used almost same nose design from last year so that's a huge disappointment for me because i expected team like Ferrari and other top dogs to bring something new in this area after those years when it had proved that they miss something because cannot fight with Mercs
I'm not sure the noses are wide because they are un- developed although they look like that a bit. They seem to try and make an as wide and flat nose as possible. One thing they might try to achieve with that could be simply direct downforce (which those wide and flat and rather squared noses will produce undoubtedly). The huge diffusers and wider wings at the rear need some opposition at the front and those noses might be part of that opposing force. Merc has a very long wheel base which moves the T- Tray area forward relatively between front and rear axis helping them in DF balance. Ferrari with its short wheelbase might have seen no option other than asking the nose for help in DF balance. Additionally those noses give the widest free cross section under the nose. Merc might be simply in a position to afford a more beautiful nose.
This car has so many things i like the look of, the side pods are wonders as they seem to be using the undercut to get as much air as they can to the rear of the car. They are en engineering wonder for me. Also the F1 does GP3 style cooling ducts that are facing upwards says to me they are using that for their smaller rads, where Sauber has gone arial, and like many others and cluttered their air scoop and made that massive.
The nose is jarring to me, but i can live with it, as its little smile under the nose is cute for the addition of the S Duct that will aid the extraction of air from the air blockage in that area of the car and make the front end more aerodynamically predictable.
Diffusers i won't say as they will probably change once or more likely twice even three times before Melbourne.
No telling how this car will work -- or not -- but at least the tifosi can take pride in the team going all out on this design. Aero looks very good, very sophisticated and very well developed, and it's still very early days. There should be a lot more development possible with this design than with a more conventional approach. Makes sense: put an engine guy in charge and you get advanced aero . . .? Now, if only the engine works.
Enzo Ferrari was a great man. But he was not a good man. -- Phil Hill
Hi this what I think how it goes in the new side pods. (Sorry for the quality, I have some issues to upload).
Regarding the car - If this car wins or not, this year it looks much better for me (even better than Mercedes). I still need to wait for RedBull what they came with.
Art without engineering is dreaming. Engineering without art is calculating.Steven K. Roberts
For reference. The cars must have two side impact structures per side, fully enclosed within bodywork. They must be vertically aligned with each other and positioned 500mm in front of the back of the cockpit, when viewed from the side. The upper structure must be between 400mm and 520mm above the reference plane, and the lower one must be between 70mm and 190mm above the reference plane.
I think they've installed both structures beneath the inlet, behind the blanked-off area.
A nice solution because their inlet shape is now less dictated by the crash structures. As we see with this clever free-form shape, which draws air from both the front and above.