Vanja #66 wrote: ↑19 Feb 2018, 21:56
Ok, maybe I was too harsh 2 hours ago, RB14 is a nicely designed car, natural evolution of RB13 with certain solutions borrowed from competitors. A true signature car of Adrian Newey, no doubt. Still, I was hoping for something a bit more explosive, maybe Ferrari's SF-70H spoiled me too much. I haven't spent much time analyzing evolution of RB13, but it definitely came a long way, and this car is basically a natural next step. I mean, look at this boring thing...
http://i.imgur.com/T8eEy7m.jpg
A year is a long, long time in F1.
Anyway, here are some of my thoughts on lower picture (click for full size), basically all the solutions are evolutionary from last year (some are bigger steps, some are smaller).
https://ibb.co/iWyQqn
Side pod inlets are not as aggressive as those on Williams or Haas, this is most likely Newey being Newey - I'll do it my own way. RB13 already had smallest side pod inlets of all cars, so it's not a surprise to see them like this on RB14. There are some nice vortex structures interacting between inlets, wings and side pod deflectors (color-mapped by pressure, simply for illustration). Unlike FW41, RB14 is focusing an getting the air to the coke-bottle zone from above side pods, as well as from around them (such grammar, very wow
![d'oh! #-o](./images/smilies/eusa_doh.gif)
), while FW41 is focusing heavily on getting it there from around the undercut. This is also reducing the lift a lot and I feel RB14 is designed for as little lift as possible, much like RB13. Seeing it, I'm even more interested in W09 and new Ferrari (SF-18H maybe?).
I suppose the basic concept of RB11-B/12/13/14 are quite similar: to diminish the upper surface of sidepod in order to make maximum use of air above the sidepod and reduce lift. The lines of RB14's sidepod are quite hard to point out, but I suppose that RB14 may postpone its 'belly', which is to move the widest point of the sidepod a little bit backwards. As a result, the ramp could go all the way down from the upper surface, and hide the angle between upper surface and undercut shown on RB13. From that point RB14 is a very clever evolution from the previous generations.
In terms of internal packaging, I suppose the RB14 may have a slim, triangular radiator which could suit such a tight sidepod. It might be similar as the RB13, shown as below, in which the radiator go straight down, or like the F14-T, while the radiators lean to both sides at the same time. If it was the latter case, then the surface area of RB14's radiators will not be as small as considered.
My predictions:
OR
P.S. some surface flow-viz of F14-T. May be helpful to predict how RB14's sidepod will affect the flow on the upper surface, although there seems to be some pretty severe seperation at the kick-in of coke bottle:
![Image](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zQUBXpoOXoY/U5IxlffNjpI/AAAAAAAANFI/-5aK_OOlmAs/s1600/dms1406ju254+%28Custom%29.jpg)