Red Bull RB9 Renault

[SectorOne]

It appears neither the splitter nor the barge boards move very much relative to the track.

but the stay moves as a loose cable

Now that is freaky.

Edit: some still images from the link PistoneRovente posted,

[Blanchimont]

This reminds me of Euler buckling: case b or d?

[DaveW]

The whole Splitter thing has continued to irk me even though it passed the 300 degree heat test whilst being deflection tested so I continued to dig... It's by no means conclusive and could just be flex in the stay, however when the Splitter doesn't actually impact the ground you have to look for alternatives....

Brilliant observation, congratulations.

However, I'm not sure about your conclusions. A "mass damper" is a resonant system, and works efficiently only of its natural frequency is fixed relative to that of the mode it is attempting to control. This may help. My first comment would be the reason that the Brigdestone's were less affected by a mass damper than the competing Michelin's was not a comment the properties of the tyres, but rather a comment on the vehicle properites and the engineers involved. The second comment would be that the stiffness of a buckled strut is rather non-linear (at least in the vertical direction), making it difficult to tune as a component in a mass damper.

The rest is open to debate. For example how does the strut buckle so readily on the vehicle (apparently), but yet can pass the FIA load test? How is the ride height held accurately (I presume) at a range of airspeeds? etc.

[tony77g]

I do not believe that those movements are strange. I think it must have some flexibility to not break away accusation of vibrations and impacts.
Inolte the test measures the maximum movement to 2000N (max 5mm) and is a static test. But it is important to remember that measures how much flex there is, and not the absence of flexion. What we see then could regular flex ... could ...

[PhillipM]

If the FIA tests are applied centrally, it would be possible to make a splitter that either flexed slightly sideways and made the stay bow - massively decreasing the stiffness, or did the same through warping and depended on one side of the tray hitting the floor before the other (not unreasonable in a corner I suppose)

[FoxHound]

That's the catch: we only know that Webber's car is running the T tray that hot. We don't know if the same actually applies for Vettel. Webber also very often chooses a different set up then Vettel does, complicating the matter further.

Perhaps Red Bull chooses Webber's car deliberately for these images. Perhaps there is something different (assumingly still legal though) going on at the t tray of Vettel, which Red Bull does not want to give away.

Vettel has run the infrared gimmick so far this season.

With regards the heat, the fact the FIA have heated it to 6 times as hot as it's getting on track and found nothing should've ended this myth.

Explained by Webber's higher mass perhaps?

[froggy]

And why does it look bent in this shot, where the car is stationary?

[Just_a_fan]

F1 team "cheats" to win. Hardly ground breaking news is it? If the vehicle passes the various tests then it is legal to race. The fact that it may then do naughty things on track is irrelevant - sure they're cheating but the rules are quite clear as to what is allowed. Pass the test and the vehicle is, by definition, legal.

RedBull have won by out thinking their rivals. Boo hoo, be more clever if you want to beat them.

My own opinion, however, is that it appears that RBR are a bunch of cheating gits and therefore are, morally, losers. Not sure their bank managers will care though as the money rains in. Much like Ferrari back in the "is Michael running TC or not" days. The paddock knew they were but no could persuade the FIA...

[godlameroso]

I was watching the Brazil race of last year and I noticed this halo on Vettel's car, it was on the Ferrari and the Sauber as well. I just found it odd that only these cars were making that, what looks to be a front wing vortex condensation. I thought it was water on the camera lens but after careful inspection it doesn't appear to be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SyaMSM6W3I

Here is the onboard race, you can see it gets bigger the faster he goes and smaller the slower he goes. Is this caused by the front wing or is it water on the camera? If it is caused by the front wing what shapes or elements would create such a phenomenon?

[Richard]

I see what you mean, especially at 23:50.

Its not water on the outside of the camera because you can see small droplets run across the lens. I'd say it is water trapped between the outer cover (the bit that rotates to clean dirt) and the camera housing. They get squeezed together at high speed squashing the trapped water sideways.

[Just_a_fan]

I'm with Richard on this. Looks like water trapped behind a flexible film.

[PlatinumZealot]

Water bubble.

A vortex would be visible in the form of condensation on the fringes if it's low pressure zone.

[raymondu999]

That's the catch: we only know that Webber's car is running the T tray that hot. We don't know if the same actually applies for Vettel. Webber also very often chooses a different set up then Vettel does, complicating the matter further.

Perhaps Red Bull chooses Webber's car deliberately for these images. Perhaps there is something different (assumingly still legal though) going on at the t tray of Vettel, which Red Bull does not want to give away.

Vettel has run the infrared gimmick so far this season.

With regards the heat, the fact the FIA have heated it to 6 times as hot as it's getting on track and found nothing should've ended this myth.

Explained by Webber's higher mass perhaps?

Shouldn't be. The teams have to run camera-weight ballast on whichever camera winglets aren't being camera-mounted that weekend.

[hardingfv32]

Goal: Race a splitter system that can bend more easily than it does while being FIA tested.

Could the buckling splitter stay be a way of accomplishing this. The stay is going to be stiffest when it is perfectly straight during the FIA test. When the car is in motion we have the stay buckling/bending and becoming less strong in the vertical plain. This would make for less wear on the bottom of the splitter during impacts with the track. Now there are going to be times when the stay is perfectly straight during an impact, but there is the probability that the net strength of the stay during a complete lap will be reduced.

Brian

[Huntresa]

Lol ofc its a water bubble it moved from one side of the camera to the other, didnt that tip it of?