Red Bull RB15

[bill shoe]

Yea I understand the general rationale of cost control, but "5.3 kg" seems a weirdly precise and non-round number given that it's way way lighter than any plausible conventional crankshaft. Was some manufacturer actually at or close to 5.3 kg? That would be truly mind blowing as godlameroso implied.

P.S. yes the new RB has anorexic rear hips, very impressive itself.

[PhillipM]

Yes, the FIA consulted teams on part weights at the time, don't forget unlike an F20C or even the bike engine an F1 motor isn't doing 100k miles on the road with intermittent oil changes and blasted from cold. You could probably take a good 7-8kg out of an S2000 crank even without a design or material change if you weren't so bothered about longevity.

F1 cranks are running hollow journals too these days, which is a huge portion of weight out.

[ENGINE TUNER]

Weight and CoG of the PU'S is standardized by the regulations. The Honda pu is no lighter or heavier than it's competition(they are ballasted). The weight of the carbon fiber airboxes above the PU is negligible, it's volume is of much more importance, although less so since the rear wing has been raised. Please stop arguing about nonsense.

The RB15 looks good, but will only go as far as Honda pu reliability(combined with Newey's uncompromising packaging) will allow. They are already planning on taking at least 4 pus this season, if not 5.

"The weight of the carbon fiber airboxes above the PU is negligible" this statement is entirely incorrect. Teams put a lot of R and D into making the roll hoop as light as possible. The reason is that the roll hoop contains the roll over crash protection. There is a lot of carbon fibre up there to create the strength needed.

I was referring to the airboxes, not the roll hoop obviously, as we were talking about the PU weight and CoG.

[xavier]

Newbie question here. Could it be that having the drag of the radiators on top of the engine, instead of the sidepods, is done to transfer a bit of downforce from the front to the back.

[DiogoBrand]

Newbie question here. Could it be that having the drag of the radiators on top of the engine, instead of the sidepods, is done to transfer a bit of downforce from the front to the back.

You are right. Having the center of drag higher up on the car will transfer load from the front to the rear tyres. I just don't think this effect is considerable just by moving a few coolers from the sidepod to the airbox.

[rebel]

I was a bit curious what was hidden in the darkness and put the nose through an image-editor...
Don't mind the arrow....check the (reversed) gills on the side of the nose...

Noob question.
But would these 'gills' scoop up more air, speed & tidy the airflow up?
Looks to me its ment to smoothen and the air before its released over the midsection.
Or would they push the fast moving air under the floor to create a lower pressure?

[HPD]

[Big Tea]

Newbie question here. Could it be that having the drag of the radiators on top of the engine, instead of the sidepods, is done to transfer a bit of downforce from the front to the back.

You are right. Having the center of drag higher up on the car will transfer load from the front to the rear tyres. I just don't think this effect is considerable just by moving a few coolers from the sidepod to the airbox.

Just wondering, (again) as long as the strength could be maintained, could a 'radiator' be incorporated into the roll hoop? Being stuck up there in the air stream as it is?

[jjn9128]

Noob question.
But would these 'gills' scoop up more air, speed & tidy the airflow up?
Looks to me its ment to smoothen and the air before its released over the midsection.
Or would they push the fast moving air under the floor to create a lower pressure?

Are you asking about the vanes under the nose?

They have 2 jobs 1) is to reduce pressure under the nose which makes some downforce and helps extract flow behind the neutral bit of the front wing, 2) the footplates are shaped to help manipulate the Y250 vortex coming off the inboard section of the front wing as it progresses down the chassis, keeping it intact and positioning the centre for maximum effect.

[DiogoBrand]

Newbie question here. Could it be that having the drag of the radiators on top of the engine, instead of the sidepods, is done to transfer a bit of downforce from the front to the back.

You are right. Having the center of drag higher up on the car will transfer load from the front to the rear tyres. I just don't think this effect is considerable just by moving a few coolers from the sidepod to the airbox.

Just wondering, (again) as long as the strength could be maintained, could a 'radiator' be incorporated into the roll hoop? Being stuck up there in the air stream as it is?

I don't know, but if you took the entire roll hoop for that, you'd lose the clean air to feed the engine intake, and also you'd need more piping than if the radiator is placed further back as they are right now, raising the center of gravity and increasing the overall weight.

[paddyf1]

You are right. Having the center of drag higher up on the car will transfer load from the front to the rear tyres. I just don't think this effect is considerable just by moving a few coolers from the sidepod to the airbox.

Just wondering, (again) as long as the strength could be maintained, could a 'radiator' be incorporated into the roll hoop? Being stuck up there in the air stream as it is?

I don't know, but if you took the entire roll hoop for that, you'd lose the clean air to feed the engine intake, and also you'd need more piping than if the radiator is placed further back as they are right now, raising the center of gravity and increasing the overall weight.

Radiators not in the roll hoop but just back. http://f1i.com/magazine/magazine-techni ... ars.html/3

[paddyf1]

Just wondering, (again) as long as the strength could be maintained, could a 'radiator' be incorporated into the roll hoop? Being stuck up there in the air stream as it is?

I don't know, but if you took the entire roll hoop for that, you'd lose the clean air to feed the engine intake, and also you'd need more piping than if the radiator is placed further back as they are right now, raising the center of gravity and increasing the overall weight.

Radiators not in the roll hoop but just back. RB13. http://f1i.com/magazine/magazine-techni ... ars.html/3

[lio007]

Do you think RBR might use Toro Rosso for testing the lower-outter-frontwing-section-concept?

[etusch]

Do you think RBR might use Toro Rosso for testing the lower-outter-frontwing-section-concept?

by producing one of it, they can test it on their own car.

[McMika98]

Do you think RBR might use Toro Rosso for testing the lower-outter-frontwing-section-concept?

Arent they already doing that. TR wing looks very promising and clearly a refined design that might have had few iterations of development already. Fact that they already drove the car suggests it was developed at quicker rate than TR is capable of.