Alpine A521

[FW17]

This makes sense but it is not a rule and doesn't explain why the renault uppper cover is that wide.

They have kept it wide as they have the Y shaped duct and coolers on top of the fuel tank. which are on either side of the ducts running to feed air to to turbo intake and another cooler. They could have shrunk the engine cover closer there by directing the out flow from the Y shaped cooler down, but Renault have chosen to run them straight back. The solution could probably reduce internal drag.

I remember in 2010 - 11 times when Renault used to have the largest sidepods, and Red Bull the smallest. Renault had a much lower drag in comparison to Red Bull

https://static.carthrottle.com/workspac ... b6f0be.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/rrfiw8D.jpg?1
http://img1.auto-motor-und-sport.de/Tor ... 903195.jpg

It's a rather trapezoid-shaped cooler with a squarish-trapezoid roll hoop air duct
Thar STR engine oil cooler was was Y-shaped
https://i.imgur.com/VcupYSE.jpg

Yup. It is wide to allow air to flow around as expected.

For me too, it seems that the hot air downstream from the CCS flowed relatively freely around the compressor duct and the gearbox rad duct, and went down to escape from the rear exit, with the sidepod hot air...

Do you think they added new ducts behind the CCS to better manage that air, hence the bulkier roll hoop bodywork?

STR brought the Y of the duct down, Renault keeps it more horizontal.

[aerofoilf1]

They also changed some elements on the side deflectors and the rear wing endplate

[PlatinumZealot]

This makes sense but it is not a rule and doesn't explain why the renault uppper cover is that wide.

They have kept it wide as they have the Y shaped duct and coolers on top of the fuel tank. which are on either side of the ducts running to feed air to to turbo intake and another cooler. They could have shrunk the engine cover closer there by directing the out flow from the Y shaped cooler down, but Renault have chosen to run them straight back. The solution could probably reduce internal drag.

I remember in 2010 - 11 times when Renault used to have the largest sidepods, and Red Bull the smallest. Renault had a much lower drag in comparison to Red Bull

https://static.carthrottle.com/workspac ... b6f0be.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/rrfiw8D.jpg?1
http://img1.auto-motor-und-sport.de/Tor ... 903195.jpg

Yup. I agree. Which is what i explained. But his image did not account for that.

The STR cooler. It worked well. They kept the design for two or three years I think.

[Blackout]

I got the impression that in the RS.18-19-20, the hot air coming out of the CCS (in red) flowed quite 'freely' afterwards...



If you follow the curves of that RS.18 rollhoop cover (top left), the bodywork gently guided this hot air downwards IMO. This air joined the sidepod hot air and they came out together from the rear exit...
That relatiovely free air downstream of the CCS even had to bypass the internal organs of the car, such as the yellow-colored compressor duct...

These Renaults were probably the only cars to do this.
On the cars that feature a vertical rear CCS, I have the impression that the heated air coming out of them was encapsulated between the CCS and the bodywork and sealed on the sides to prevent it from spilling and flowing around... they formed an exit duct



So maybe in 2021, the team provided the air coming out of the CCS with its own ducts, to manage it better, in order to improve cooling, or maybe drag too... which made the the rollhoop cover wider?

[godlameroso]

I'm still surprised no one is really talking about how high the inner floor leading edge is. It's almost as tall as the bargeboard at its highest point. Is that legal? If so, it's brilliant way to drive a ton of air to the diffuser. Hope it doesn't starve the bargeboards of airflow.

[Just_a_fan]

I'm still surprised no one is really talking about how high the inner floor leading edge is. It's almost as tall as the bargeboard at its highest point. Is that legal? If so, it's brilliant way to drive a ton of air to the diffuser. Hope it doesn't starve the bargeboards of airflow.

I think the edge of the floor's radius is governed by the regulations and therefore the height of the leading edge is likewise governed by the regulations. So any apparent height gain by Alpine is an optical effect.

If the teams could lift the leading edge of the floor as much as they liked, they'd be making the leading edges higher still.

[PlatinumZealot]

I'm still surprised no one is really talking about how high the inner floor leading edge is. It's almost as tall as the bargeboard at its highest point. Is that legal? If so, it's brilliant way to drive a ton of air to the diffuser. Hope it doesn't starve the bargeboards of airflow.

Where did you see that?

[godlameroso]

I'm still surprised no one is really talking about how high the inner floor leading edge is. It's almost as tall as the bargeboard at its highest point. Is that legal? If so, it's brilliant way to drive a ton of air to the diffuser. Hope it doesn't starve the bargeboards of airflow.

Where did you see that?

[Giando]

Man, the engine cover section of the Alpine is HUGE!

I wonder if they chose to put a lot of cooling stuff in that area because the halo is basically already 'masking' the rear wing and so it is not really important how big that section would be... or?

Otherwise, i cannot make up my mind about the reason behind that choice, especially because the sidepods aren't that tiny, as far as i can see... I mean, i would have understood it if they had removed a lot of the radiator surface from the sidepods and then shrinking them much, much more than the competitors; but it doesn't seem so...

[Blackout]

So to sum it up, the new A521 sidepods are more undercut at the front and the sides (but not at the rear, at first glance, which is curious) and the sidepods have smaller air inlets.
And the roll hoop got larger, BUT its air intakes are the same...

This is different from Ferrari for example.
Between 2018 and 2019, Ferrari went from a split cooling system (sidepods+centerline) to an "all in the sidepods cooling system" .So, logically, their 2019 sidepod intakes have become larger than the 2018 ones, while the roll hoop intake has shrunk and was 95% for combustion...

--> IMO Renault didnt just add coolers to their centerline cooling system in the roll hoop, they also changed the layout and positioning of the coolers, amongst other things...

[f1rules]

nice big undercut

[GoranF1]

Incresing number of rumors suggesting Split turbo engine already in the car in BAH.

[Manoah2u]

nice big undercut
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EwN3-TvXAAY ... me=900x900

whoa, that's an understatement

[RedNEO]

[Manoah2u]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EwN2otkWQAA ... ame=medium

thats a good looking car and that's an awesome picture