Spanish GP 2008

[meves]

Fair point! I'm justing going for an eye test, back soon.

[CMSMJ1]

...and the TG = Timo Glock.

The case rests m'lud.

[DaveKillens]

I just hope that when this race weekened is concluded, we will be talking about what happens on track. With all the BS politics going on, I just want to see and think about racing.
pretty well all the teams have stated that Barcelona is where everyone can make valid comparisons on performance, upgrades and all. With the recent testing that included slick tires and '09 spec aero simulations, it's difficult to honestly judge who's really fast. Just because Barrichello grabbed the headlines one day, that means little to me.
Ferrari will be up front, and the only question is how close McLaren and BMW have come. Where will the rest be? Can Renault salvage any semblance of respectable speed for Alonso and his many fans?

[SMP]

Its sort of boiling down to a disappointing trend - many teams have stated that towards the middle of the season, if they don't have a "good prospect" for the rest of the season, they'd concentrate on 2009 and just dump development for the 2008 cars.

[SMP]

Regarding the picture of the wheel posted by meves - those look like fins/fan-blades that are designed to rotate around an axis. If so, don't they become a violation of the "no movable aerodynamic parts" rule?

[meves]

Good to see that Honda are running with the ears and Ferrari with the holes in the nose!

It'll be interesting to see if the Toyota wheels (I've got some new glasses, so we're all good on that one now) rotate or are static like the otehr wheel covers.

[WhiteBlue]

I expect Renault to be the most improved team due to their J-damper. Catching BMW as Flav dreams will be a bit steep.

[DaveKillens]

It'll be interesting to see if the Toyota wheels (I've got some new glasses, so we're all good on that one now) rotate or are static like the otehr wheel covers.

I'm very sure they rotate. If you examine the picture, you can see indexing marks on the wheel rim, in line with the four attaching screws.

[Project Four]

According to rummors Toyota aren't going to run their wheel fairings in spain, due to problems with aero inconsistents and the its effects on the other aero devices.

McLaren are to run their tongue wheel fairing.

[ginsu]

That Toyota wheel is interesting, and it makes sense they would put it on the rear. I'm really surprised that teams have not done that before, but is it really for brake cooling or does it help with aero in some way?

You don't get to see the angle of the rear wishbones very often, and you can see that the Redbull does indeed get appreciable negative camber gain on the rear during suspension compression. It's a shame the front tires have to deal with such a horrible camber curve, and it is obvious why they run such dramatic static negative camber (I'm surprised they can get on the brakes as hard as they do). Anytime I run 3-4 degrees negative camber on my street car it feels absolutely horrible under braking, not to mention how much I fight with the steering wheel to keep it going straight over the road crowns.



An interesting pic of the Ferrari nosecone, I think I can just make out the intake scoop on the bottom of the nosecone acting as the inlet for 'hole in the nose'. It looks pretty big, maybe (2in tall x 10in wide).



Since I'm taking fluid mechanics this term, I'll do a little volume flow rate estimate.

Inlet Area (50mm x 250mm) = 0.0125 m^2
Inlet Velocity @ Top Speed (340 km/hr) = 95 m/s

Volume Flow Rate = Ai*Vi = 1.2 m^3/s

Wow! That's over a cubic meter a second is quite a bit. If that can be correlated with the flow rate over/under the wing, that should gain them some appreciable downforce. Although, obviously cornering speeds would be considerably slower. And now that I think about it, wouldn't this effectively increase the drag on the straights? I'm wondering if the difference will be noticeable, Ferrari have always been really fast in a straight line. Although, it might mean that they would also be making that much more power because a lot of the flow is directed at the airbox.

With even more consideration, I think that scoop is setup to take flow from the top of the wing and not the bottom, so it should decrease the high pressure zone on the top of the wing effectively loosing downforce but decreasing drag. Aero is so complicated, it is really hard to know just by looking.

In any case, my bet is on Ferrari.

[ben_watkins]

yep, i'm watching the practice session on itv-f1.com and those wheel covers are rears on the toyota.. they don't have any on the front atm..

[ben_watkins]

With 45mins left of this practice session Kimi has just gone out..

Currently Hamilton is fastest with a 1.21.192

Kimi on his first lap is shy by 0.2 sec. The new Ferrari nose looks to be working really well..

My prediction for the race will be an easy Ferrari 1 & 2 with a McLaren or BMW on the final step of the podium..


EDIT [26 mins to go] - Kimi is fastest now on a 1.20.6 and Massa is second by about 0.05, even though he's spun it twice!

The Super Aguri is running [5.5 secs off the pace] with almost zero sponsor logos.. Just the Honda markings and a a few small decals.. looks very sad

[RJC_pt]

Those toyota rear wheel farings... if they move and act like a fan are they not forbithen?

[ben_watkins]

Spanish GP free practice session 2 times

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:21.935 38
2. Piquet Renault (B) 1:22.019 + 0.084 38
3. Alonso Renault (B) 1:22.032 + 0.097 26
4. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:22.172 + 0.237 35
5. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:22.229 + 0.294 32
6. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:22.238 + 0.303 36
7. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:22.266 + 0.331 33
8. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:22.289 + 0.354 30
9. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:22.383 + 0.448 38
10. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:22.548 + 0.613 38
11. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:22.685 + 0.750 33
12. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:22.788 + 0.853 38
13. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:23.130 + 1.195 40
14. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:23.224 + 1.289 34
15. Button Honda (B) 1:23.263 + 1.328 34
16. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:23.264 + 1.329 8
17. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:23.415 + 1.480 31
18. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:23.661 + 1.726 35
19. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:23.684 + 1.749 37
20. Glock Toyota (B) 1:23.883 + 1.948 40
21. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:25.110 + 3.175 30
22. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:25.163 + 3.228 31



EDIT - Kovi had a mechanical failure near the end of the session.. gearbox related

[mika vs michael]

Hamilton had a spin and he had his opposite steering wheel lock correcting his course on the track. Alonso reminded me of himself in the early Renault days where he had too much steering wheel input, when he fought with the steering wheel. He had his opposite lock as well but he was on the edge. Kovalaine's McLaren stopped on the side of the track. It looked like hydraulics failure but I am not sure. Ferraris looked a bit relaxed in the beginning but were more on the edge at the end. Kimi again as I had predicted he tried to beat Massa and he made it. Spain and Turkey are the two circuits where Massa dominates and has won previous years. So if Kimi wants to have a chance he must cut Massa's appetite before it's too late and he seems that he is doing so.
Renault seems like the positive surprise of FP sessions.
Here you can find a small (only 370kb) mp3 file with Rosberg pits communication in FP2. It's all yours.