Toro Rosso STR6 Ferrari

[bill shoe]

The Toro Rosso is the best looking car this year.

I'm guessing Toro Rosso are currently using the 2009 Red Bull gearbox like Lotus. I think they used this 2009 gearbox back in 2009 when their car was a straight Red Bull copy.

Is the 2011 tub the same as the 2010 tub? I can't see a clear difference. The 2011 lower nose could just be a lower nose cone on the previous tub. I wonder if other teams such as Hispania or Virgin are carrying over previous tubs.

Here is my take on the Toro Rosso and McLaren sidepods (professional aerodynamicists prepare to cringe). Recent conventional undercut sidepods try to do two things near the lower outside edges. These somewhat contradictory functions are 1. Create vortices to partially seal the underbody from outside air, 2. Channel lots of air over the floor and diffuser. I see the Toro Rosso and McLaren sidepods as attempts to seperate these two functions into different locations and thus reduce the compromises between them. Both teams use the lower sidepods edges exclusively to generate vortices. Toro Rosso channels air over the diffuser by running it further inboard under the sidepod and McLaren does the same by running it further inboard over the sidepod. Both methods run it well inboard of the sidepod edge and seperate this airflow from the vortex generators along the outside edges of the floor.

[firbanks]

Looks like STR are testing with the floor exhausts open and blanked off. An exhaust pipe is visible sprouting from the rear of the side pod in the second picture (red box). The exhaust pipes are also partially visible below the beam wing in a picture of the rear end a couple of posts back.

[marcush.]

"Still I ask myself if the steeply falling sidepods we see everywhere are really
the optimum.. on their own they will definitively produce lift ...is there a possibility to raise the ducting behind the coolers completely from the floor under current rules?"
ascanellis Team has answered my question from last year with a clear message:YES they can.
Thanks Giorgio!

[zgred]

[RacingManiac]

last pic is interesting, are they using that LVDT to measure the front splitter deflection?

[raymondu999]

Better shot of the floor:

[manchild]

Fully undercut sidepods idea, 3rd June 2005. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1350

[StrFerrari4Ever]

Fully undercut sidepods idea, 3rd June 2005. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1350

Life is very cruel

I'm impressed by STR & the STR6 so far. They've just been keeping at it and they seem already in better shape than they did last year. I hope this isn't deceiving pace & it's actually genuine so they can build on it.

[Robbobnob]

I'm guessing Toro Rosso are currently using the 2009 Red Bull gearbox like Lotus. I think they used this 2009 gearbox back in 2009 when their car was a straight Red Bull copy.

Maybe an adaption of the red bull gearbox as TR run the ferrari and RB run the Renault??

Maybe its a inhouse modification of the RB gearbox spec 2009??

can anyone shed some light on this?

[ESPImperium]

STR have always had a Ferrari 056 adopted transmission, it is only different in mounting points and a few other details, other than that its the same internals as what the RB5 had in 2009, the new box is updated to 2010 specs on some areas as well. The STR box seemingly sits higher by 15mm to the Red Bull/Team Lotus boxes that are married to the Renault RS27-2011 engines. And at that Team Lotus has a different case from Red Bull.

So Red Bull manufacture 3 specs of gearbox to my info.

[matt21]

Do you think it is legal to shape the sidepods like a wing in order to greate something like a venturi tunnel like Manchild mentioned?

Maybe to use the barge board in front of the pod as vortex generator to seal the gap from outer air? or create venturi tunnel inside the sidepod?

[Paul]

There is no point in that if I understand your idea correctly- you would be pulling two parts of car together, while what you want is pulling whole car closer to tarmac.

[segedunum]

"Still I ask myself if the steeply falling sidepods we see everywhere are really the optimum.. on their own they will definitively produce lift ...is there a possibility to raise the ducting behind the coolers completely from the floor under current rules?"

You'd rather not have those steeply falling sidepods because yes, they will produce a certain amount of lift, but the name of the game is all about getting as much air as fast as possible to the rear of the car to create more downforce. That's what some people around here haven't really got. A car isn't just an upside down aeroplane. There are tradeoffs that you make, and if it creates enough downforce at the rear of the car where the wheels and tyres are then you generally do it.

It's indeed a good idea. Ferrari famously had a double floor in 1992 and the question everyone will have been asking themselves last year would have been how on Earth do we create enough space to get as much air to the rear of the car and the diffuser as possible?

Hats off to Torro Rosso. They were under some pressure last year, their future is uncertain and they needed to do something and prove they could innovate in their own right. They've done just that. Not a sharp edge or abrupt curve in sight. The only thing is they're really going to have to work at this to make it worth the obvious higher centre of gravity.

[adrianjordan]

That's what some people around here haven't really got.

In fact sometimes it seems like noone other than you gets it...

[amouzouris]

Torro Rosso had always been under the shadow of the Red Bull... It was about time they did something on their own... So this year they did and its really hats off to them! I believe that their solution works much better than McLaren's one.