February Test Thread

[Shaddock]

It is too visible to your competitors to do this outside the wind tunnel.

I think they are having issues, and are trying desperate measures to solve or understand them...

Next we will see wool stuck to the rear wing with camcorder bolted onto the diffuser

[ISLAMATRON]

It is too visible to your competitors to do this outside the wind tunnel.

I think they are having issues, and are trying desperate measures to solve or understand them...

So what if their comp sees it? Every car is shaped differently so what would their competitors gain from seeing it? On the other hand their engineer's can learn alot from how the car is operating in the real world and outside the confines of the wind tunnel.

The only thing their compititors can learn by seeing McLaren try this is to copy the same testing technique.

Plus it is a good way to validate the numbers coming out of the wind tunnel.

[Shaddock]

Silly question this: Where did the paint come from

Camera housing on the nose?

[Scotracer]

It is too visible to your competitors to do this outside the wind tunnel.

I think they are having issues, and are trying desperate measures to solve or understand them...

Don't be silly. Since windtunnel testing is reduced and CFD is still touch & go it's good to do it in real life.

Shaddock: It's painted on...

[jddh1]

Silly question this: Where did the paint come from

Camera housing on the nose?

Looks to me like it might have been applied earlier on pressure points. Either that, or as somebody said, Spanish fans hit the car with paintballs.

[ISLAMATRON]

Silly question this: Where did the paint come from

Camera housing on the nose?

Not a bad idea... but I think they paint it onto the leadin edges and them the car loose.

I like how it got onto HK's visor... they should use it in the race to blind the following driver... a whole new era of GP driving.

[Conceptual]

If you say so... I would then have to ask the question of why this isn't a much more common practice? The last time I saw this type of testing, was McMerc trying to figure out their front wheel fairings.

If it is such a great idea, can you explain why no one else does it? And I am sure that knowing where the air is going may give away any secrets to the front end geometry and how it is working.

I may be wrong of course, but I really don't see any more proof against what I said than I gave when I said it.

Is this just another one of those "I don't need to give facts, just my opinion" statements from you ISLAMATRON? Because if it is, I will simply flush it along with the rest.

[Shaddock]

Silly question this: Where did the paint come from

Camera housing on the nose?

I like how it got onto HK's visor... they should use it in the race to blind the following driver... a whole new era of GP driving.

Use the Force Luke

I much prefer my idea of releasing a fine spray of paint from the nose

The rear wing stays pretty much in clear air by the looks of the distribution pattern.

[Scotracer]

If you say so... I would then have to ask the question of why this isn't a much more common practice? The last time I saw this type of testing, was McMerc trying to figure out their front wheel fairings.

If it is such a great idea, can you explain why no one else does it? And I am sure that knowing where the air is going may give away any secrets to the front end geometry and how it is working.

I may be wrong of course, but I really don't see any more proof against what I said than I gave when I said it.

Is this just another one of those "I don't need to give facts, just my opinion" statements from you ISLAMATRON? Because if it is, I will simply flush it along with the rest.

I don't think the lines of dye will reveal anything that the other teams can't work out from footage anyway. I mean, if the teams can work out the power output of each others engines purely from the sound, there's no real limit to what they can do

[andartop]

..Or Heikki just run over a very big frog.
Methinks competitors might have a lot to spy on with this technique. Why not use some sort of transparent to the naked eye liquid which then becomes visible with a dye - maybe by spraying on top of it?

[Scotracer]

..Or Heikki just run over a very big frog.
Methinks competitors might have a lot to spy on with this technique. Why not use some sort of transparent to the naked eye liquid which then becomes visible with a dye - maybe by spraying on top of it?

Or something that shows up under ultra-violet light?

If you have it so you have to spray on it, you risk contaminating the result.

[Rikhart]

That paint-trail doesnt seem at all clever to me, since it gives away plenty of the cars aero to anyone with a camera handy.

[Shaddock]

Compared to CFD and $50 million wind tunnels it seems a bit, well, basic..... and unscientific to me.

Maybe they just wanted to back up what the wind tunnel was telling them. Renault relied to much on the windtunnel and their simulators with the R27 and not enough 'real' world testing.

[Scotracer]

Compared to CFD and $50 million wind tunnels it seems a bit, well, basic..... and unscientific to me.

Maybe they just wanted to back up what the wind tunnel was telling them. Renault relied to much on the windtunnel and their simulators with the R27 and not enough 'real' world testing.

K.I.S.S





Yes, they are probably just backing up the CFD results.

[Conceptual]

..Or Heikki just run over a very big frog.
Methinks competitors might have a lot to spy on with this technique. Why not use some sort of transparent to the naked eye liquid which then becomes visible with a dye - maybe by spraying on top of it?

Or something that shows up under ultra-violet light?

If you have it so you have to spray on it, you risk contaminating the result.

UV dye would be perfect, and if it is available, we may have been looking at it for YEARS and never knew it!

Anyways,

The more that I look at it, it looks as if they are concentrating on the wake of the new front suspension setup. I don't know why, and unless McMerc makes a statement about it, neither does anyone else, but it is deffinately interesting!