Renault R31

[PlatinumZealot]

Tip! There's a really interesting article on Mikolaj Sokol's blog(http://sokolimokiem.tv/). The subject is how Lotus Renault GP is going in the opposite direction from Mercedes GP. Basically he's pointing out that we should not expect to much of Lotus Renault GP in the coming seasons. Firstly beacuse they lack a whole season of running a "normal" exhaust and secondly beacuse James Allison is the only one left from the championship winning era. There are some interesting examples from the past...

Interesting. But you know, I think car for car if the Renault had the EBD it would be faster than the W02. So If we remove the rear blown diffusers from the equation, as will be the case in 2012, that lack of experience in 2011 wouldn't be too harmful.

[marcush.]

clearly Allison has admitted the R31 is a failed concept on all grounds.The basic problem is the non correlation of simulation and windtunnel results to what the drivers experience on track ..and unfortunatelly the downforce numbers are considerably lower than anticipated usually.
The point of interest is the car worked reasonably well out of the box but seems not to respond to development away from the track.
If this is solely a matter of equipment or people understanding the whole concept or simply a matter of the concepts potential already peaked in the first races we might never get to know.

I find it very telling that Newey stating right at the beginning of the year that he will not use up ANY available recources to evaluate the exhaust concepts of Renault and Mercedes....so in my view he had this done in the original concept phase and came to the correct(?) conclusion that these concepts do not have enough development potential considering the consequence it has for the car packaging.

[ringo]

No i don't think Newey did it before in concept stage.

The FEE potentially has more benefits, but these benefits only occur at ideal conditions.

The design may be more of a human limitation than the limitation of the concept it self.

If movable aero was allowed and they could angle those pipes, i don't think the FEE would have it weaknesses.

The FEE is a sun dial, while the rear blown exhaust is an atomic clock.
One has too many dependencies.

[Fil]

Not to forget there are 8-10 teams developing & copying their EBD solutions, whilst Renault only has themselves to look to for development ideas.

This could just as easily be a prime example of how important it is in F1 to look at and adapt/copy what others are doing.



Ideal design convergence involves the whole field. Renault, as the lone FEE, misses out on all of that.

[ringo]

what's new with the body work?

It seems to bulge more up front, but is a slimmer at the rear.

[marcush.]

Still their campaign is fighting rear guard and has dropped massively in performance since Heidfeld is gone ...Maybe a coincidence but it seems rather odd they scored 6,1points per race on average till race 11 and dropped to 1.5 points per race in the last 4 ...Luckily for them FI had a dip in performance this weekend..

[madly]

[horse]

I wonder if they could have got more out of it with a tighter radius on the exhaust exit? Theoretically they would have been able to intercept more of the leading edge than they currently can.

[BreezyRacer]

I wonder if they could have got more out of it with a tighter radius on the exhaust exit? Theoretically they would have been able to intercept more of the leading edge than they currently can.

They have been tuning the nozzles all season so I'm sure they have that pretty refined. I think the problem is that the nozzle angle can be tuned for high speed corners or low speed corners, but not both.

[hardingfv32]

"I wonder if they could have got more out of it with a tighter radius on the exhaust exit? Theoretically they would have been able to intercept more of the leading edge than they currently can."

In your opinion why do you think that would be helpful?

Brian

[volarchico]

If you look inside the exhaust, you can see the angle of the turning vane. It actually appears that the exhaust is turned pretty sharply rear-ward based on where the turning vane ends and the lip on the front of the exhaust exit.

[Mr.S]

Tip! There's a really interesting article on Mikolaj Sokol's blog(http://sokolimokiem.tv/). The subject is how Lotus Renault GP is going in the opposite direction from Mercedes GP. Basically he's pointing out that we should not expect to much of Lotus Renault GP in the coming seasons. Firstly beacuse they lack a whole season of running a "normal" exhaust and secondly beacuse James Allison is the only one left from the championship winning era. There are some interesting examples from the past...

Interesting. But you know, I think car for car if the Renault had the EBD it would be faster than the W02. So If we remove the rear blown diffusers from the equation, as will be the case in 2012, that lack of experience in 2011 wouldn't be too harmful.

I believe the early speed of Renault was because they were running EBD while Mercedes was not like Mclaren. RBR even before Australia must have worked with Renault for months of the engine mapping & hot/cold blowing.

Renault enginges & the Renault GP or whatever it is called were essentially the same last season & still would be informed of any engine mapping. The employees are the same,they have years of relations with the engine branch.

Mercedes had no idea about EBD as Brawn/Nico confessed & their EBD is still not that efficient.

I expect W03 to beat convincingly whatever R32 is. I dont think it is the case with updates,as everyone says the car is poor,suffers horribly in low speed corners & does not provide more downforce RBR. Overall I believe Renault's EBD shielded it. Now everyone uses the same & Renault has been exposed.

[horse]

In your opinion why do you think that would be helpful?

Brian

So, arguably, the FEE is doing most of its work at the leading edge of the floor. If you agree with that, then the more floor that you expose the exhaust to, by withdrawing the exhaust exits further inboard, then the more leading edge is available for enhancement.

Just a thought, like. It may be that because of the angle (to the oncoming flow) that it must be run at, it can only influence a limited area of the leading edge anyway.

[ringo]

There is a limit of floor you can expose the gases to.
The floor has to be flat once behind a certain distance from the front of the cockpit template.
So they are only able to exploit the "horn" at the front of the floor, which can have a curved surface.

What they can do is try to increase the speed of the gases further, get it as close to the speed of sound as possible.
Or use a multi element front part of the floor.

[Carlo's]

an effect of the latest upgrade - more sculpted rear: