A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
shelly wrote:The F2012 is a real stunner - will RB8 look conservative in comparison, or will it be even more original?
I think the RB8 will look very similar to the RB7, but with a more RB6 style nose with the bulges, sort of like the FI and Caterham. The sidepods I expect to be even tighter behind the intakes. The exhaust exit is the big question mark for me.
We have a couple of days for fantasy. Low nose maybe- much lower than McLaren?
But in the end I agree with you -evolution of the rb7 is what we will see. Maybe newey was just joking when he said that the rb8 would amaze everyone, but we will se if his and prodroumou's aero ideas bring something visually unusual
I think the RB8 will have a 'gator nose' like the Caterham.
Like Dren said I think it will have the V shaped bulges like on the RB6
In fact I think that McLaren and possibly HRT will be the only teams with a 'low normal' nose.
It seems the most logical way to go for the RB8 to follow on from the principles of the RB7.
Actually maybe the Merc will have a low nose - they made good use of one on the BGP01 and know how to use it effectively by putting a lot of ballast in the nose and perhaps without the EBD's a high nose won't be as important.
Newey is known to push boundaries when it comes to packaging so I think the sidepods will be even tighter but I wonder whether he may push it too far resulting in reliability issues.
I'm expecting to see pullrod suspension on the back and pushrod on the front - once again following on from what worked for them on the RB5,6,7 family line.
I think the F2012 will be the only car, possibly with the exception of Mercedes, to feature pullrod on the front.
I don't think we'll see anything outrageous and that it will be a fairly conservative car, no need to make drastic changes to something that you know works well for you - they'll follow the ''if it aint broke don't try to fix it'' philosophy.
I don't expect them to have the dominance they did last year.
The team that does well under one set of rules has the most to lose if those rules change in my opinion and I think the tighter rules will bring the teams much closer together.
I'm expecting the McLaren to be the best car this season.
They were breathing down Red Bulls neck towards the end of 2011 and I think their car looks like it's been just that much more refined from last year to take over the lead from Red Bull.
Of course we won't know until Melbourne but that's just the feeling I have.
I hope I'm right - time for a different champion and although I like Vettel I'm tired of seeing him wave that finger in our faces!
"...and there, very much in flames, is Jacques Laffite's Ligier. That's obviously a turbo blaze, and of course, Laffite will be able to see that conflagration in his mirrors... he is coolly parking the car somewhere safe."Murray Walker, San Marino 1985
Helmut Marko wrote:"Our car is not as ugly as the Ferrari, but it's also not like the McLaren, which doesn't have a kink in the nose at all.
"Ours is just a bit smaller and more elegant [than the Ferrari solution]"
according to Marko, the RB8 nose be like the Lotus E20' one
Hey I actually prefer this colour scheme! Is this the livery RB using for the 2012 season? Looking foward on it but speaking about the truth it looks like the Renault with the ING sponsor on it