Red Bull RB8 Renault

[aral]

the rear wing seems to be pivoting forward?

And the wheels appear to be revolving.

The end plate is exactly paralell to the floor. The line on the road creates an optical illusion.

[wesley123]

yeah seems like it.

Wouldnt even make sense to pivot forward

[siskue2005]

Maybe it's the rake, which seems like the rear wing is pivoting?

[Dragonfly]

I've made carbon parts out of 3 layers of twill and plain weave, none of them wrinkle/twist like that.

Hit it with a hammer and see what the effect is.

the rear wing seems to be pivoting forward?

I see the forum Sherlocks are already turning their attention to the rear after resolving the front.

It was clear from the beginning that this is not the normal state of the tip of the nose and that there is a thin layer of material to form the outer shape.
Even more, after almost the whole season passed, one wouldn't think that all the teams there comprise of fools to not even a single man have noticed such an obvious thing.

[Timstr]

So what's with this vertical channel? under the rear wing? DRD?

[siskue2005]

Passive ddrs like lotus
They need to try that to keep up their form for next season

[Timstr]

This looks active. The plumbing needed for a passive device is lacking.

[Huntresa]

This looks active. The plumbing needed for a passive device is lacking.

Sauber ran a similair, which is less introduing like the Lotus one.

[Timstr]

This looks active. The plumbing needed for a passive device is lacking.

Sauber ran a similair, which is less introduing like the Lotus one.

Sauber's device is not unlike Lotus and Merc's which are passive systems.
This looks like it's linked to the DDRS via the beam wing and endplates, thus active.

[aral]

So what's with this vertical channel? under the rear wing? DRD?

It is extremely thin so is probably just a panel to allow flo-viz to show what is happening in this under wing area.

[wesley123]

It's the activator for DRS. Red Bull tried it in the pres eason test too to not have the DRS actuator on top of the wing, and instead did this, but never ran it.

[Forza]

Yes they've used one similar pillar in preseason. In this case tubing is curved and connected to another channel coming out of the cooling exit like other DRD systems and there is also some flow separation on RW.

[RB7ate9]

That flow separation on the rear wing has to be from the DDRS, yes? Would RB try a "kitchen sink" approach and have their ramp/coanada exhausts along with DDRS/DRD?

[Intego]

So this nose damper thing again ... I put together some footage from the FPs and behold: not only the RB8 nose is swinging but also the ones from Toro Rosso, McLaren and Williams.

F1 Abu Dhabi 2012 Front Wing Movement Collection

As I don't have a YT-account and do not plan to have feel free to upload it there and embed it here.

EDIT: Typo

[bhall]

Excellent footage, Intego. (Is video still "footage" in the digital realm?)

I don't have the wherewithal to upload it to YouTube or to create one of those fancy animated gifs. So, I'll do this the old-fashioned way.

Check out Webber's car from about 0:11 to 0:16. Look at the front wing and the tires. When he hits the curb, the front wing shows sudden intense oscillation that disappears almost as quickly. As that happens, comparatively little happens to the tires or the chassis; it's all nice and smooth.

Ideally, a comparison to another car is best made from the same angle on the same turn. Unless I missed it, I didn't see a view of another car that met such criteria. But, if you take a look at Maldonado's car from 0:55 to 1:01 and Vergne's car from 1:41 to 1:47, you'll see something roughly similar.

Admittedly, Maldonado took a huge chunk out of the high, inner curb as he turned, but notice how his wing didn't oscillate nearly as much as Webber's wing, and his tires shook violently. Because the suspension of a Formula One car is incredibly stiff, that oscillation was transmitted to the chassis, and you can see how the car became unsettled as a result.

The view of Vergne's car shows a much cleaner turn. Yet, you see the same violent tire oscillation, which creates an inconsistent contact patch with the circuit and unsettles the chassis. Be it by tenths or by hundredths, that costs laptime.

It really seems like Red Bull has figured out a way to use an "elastic" nose to transmit those unsettling forces to the mass of the front wing, which, as it shakes, rattles and rolls, then dampens the effect those forces have on the rest of the car. This is precisely what Renault's tuned mass damper did in 2005-06; it was just hidden from sight within the nose of the car in a package that more closely resembled mass dampers that are commonly found in various other applications.

Incidentally, Renault also had a tuned mass damper mounted on the rear of the R26, or at least they planned to have one. It might be asking too much of the rear wing to do more than just create downforce, but you never know...