February Test Thread

[Scotracer]

All the cars look good from certain angles...but from others they look completely horrendous (i.e. from directly in front).

[bonjon1979]

Hi, new to this site and don't really have much engineering expertise. Have found all the posts fascinating though (apart from the 'I know better than you, one up man ship that seems to go on!). I have to agree that Mclaren have to be up to something by using the 08 wing. They must know that they'll have a similar level of downforce once all their 09 pieces are in place, otherwise it doesn't make a great deal of sense, right? Especially if Heikki did 90+ laps with it today. If they were having problems with the 09 wing surely it'd make more sense to use that and try to figure out solutions?

As I mentioned I'm not really that technically minded so apologies if I'm being naive/ stupid and please let me know your thoughts.

btw saw this on the F1 website, it must really fill the marshalls with confidence about handling KERS cars come Melbourne!

http://www.formula1.com/gallery/testing/2009/376.html

[bonjon1979]

The image i was referring to was the one of Vettel leaping from his car so he didn't touch any of the body work!

[natef1]

Hi, new to this site and don't really have much engineering expertise. Have found all the posts fascinating though (apart from the 'I know better than you, one up man ship that seems to go on!). I have to agree that Mclaren have to be up to something by using the 08 wing. They must know that they'll have a similar level of downforce once all their 09 pieces are in place, otherwise it doesn't make a great deal of sense, right? Especially if Heikki did 90+ laps with it today. If they were having problems with the 09 wing surely it'd make more sense to use that and try to figure out solutions?

As I mentioned I'm not really that technically minded so apologies if I'm being naive/ stupid and please let me know your thoughts.

btw saw this on the F1 website, it must really fill the marshalls with confidence about handling KERS cars come Melbourne!

http://www.formula1.com/gallery/testing/2009/376.html

I'm guessing you mean Vettel coming out of the car

*zap*

Isn't there some way of grounding it?

edit : ^ Woops I was too slow!

[Scotracer]

The idea that Mclaren will produce a similar amount of downforce from a wing that is 3/4 the size of before is quite optimistic. However, they are allowed a deeper profile now so you never know how much they can claw back.

[Shaddock]

some kind of air flow monitoring ??

I was wondering what would sort of feedback would prompt this kind of test?

Maybe the drivers were complaining of stability issues, but looking at where the paint has ended up in the photo, it’s difficult to see how the front wing would be troubling the flow to the rear wing as they are so high up these days.

The other thing that sprung to mind would be unusual temperature readings from the radiators. These could be higher or lower than expected from the simulations and this was a practical way of analysing where the air was either escaping to or coming from into the sidepod.

EDIT:-

If they were running hot and had to reduce revs to save the engine, to simulate race speed they could throw on last years wing which has a better downforce/drag characteristics to bring them back up to race speed for testing purposes.

Any thoughts ?

[Wilfko]

http://www.mclaren.com/f1season/jerez-feb09-11.php

Good pace from the mclaren showed at last, as the link says macca say the reasoning behind the 08 wing was a lack of a High HD 09 spec wing, makes sense.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Blocked off part of the middle section of the duffuser? why?

[natef1]

Blocked off part of the middle section of the duffuser? why?

Hiding something?

[MattF1]

Blocked off part of the middle section of the duffuser? why?

Maybe to compensate for the extra downforce produced by the 08 rear wing.

[Conceptual]

Would everyone agree that the car would actually look decent, and perhaps even good if they got rid of the undernose bulge and diffuser-like vanes? Amazing how one area can make the entire car look bad.

Not to mention the fat bodywork around the rear end!

If the RB5 starts to PWN all, then we may see some suspension parts migrating backwards to Renault.

And, personally, I like the look of the R29. It looks beefy, but we all know that it is 605kg, and with an upgraded engine, I think when alonso gets into the car later this week, that the timesheets may have something different to say!

[tk421]

Blocked off part of the middle section of the duffuser? why?

Maybe to compensate for the extra downforce produced by the 08 rear wing.

The Renault's is blocked off too, and they're running 09 wings...
http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/photolarge.ph ... &catID=105 (sorry, the img feature isn't working for me)

[Shaddock]

Blocked off part of the middle section of the duffuser? why?

Maybe to compensate for the extra downforce produced by the 08 rear wing.

Can't be to simulate downforce levels with the 08 wing, they would just lower the flap or use the Silverstone/Canada wing from the 08 car.

[Shaddock]

The radiator is still covered in paint

[Moanlower]

The radiator is still covered in paint

j/k