Minardi PS04B

[Irvingthien]

New Minardi looks like last years. Wonder what have they learned from the Arrows chasis they've purchased, it's almost as bad as theirs in 2002,
so why don't they just buy more advanced chasis from Jordan or Jaguar instead?
What's that red stuff covering their brakeducts?

[rodlamas]

It seems to me that the chassis is a bit lower, not only the nose cone.

The lessons they might have learnt might be inside the covers and maybe they´ll never be visible.

But I don´t expect it to get any further than the 10th row of the grid.

Having an engine that revs only up to 16,800 rpms and only 800bhp is way behing of the top ones. And 100 bhp makes a huge difference.

[Monstrobolaxa]

The air box also seems to be a little bigger....the pic doesn't show too much....but ir seems to me that the air box is slightly bigger.

[rodlamas]

This should be an attempt to get a better cooling for the engine, very useful regarding the new regulations.

I just can see many differences excepct for the fact that the whole chassis seems to be lower.

Talking about the airbox and the cooling thing, this should very good in specific for Minardi bevause the´ll be running not a new engine but a revised CR-3, that has been rebadged as CR-3L.

[Timstr]

This should be an attempt to get a better cooling for the engine, very useful regarding the new regulations.

I just can see many differences excepct for the fact that the whole chassis seems to be lower.

Talking about the airbox and the cooling thing, this should very good in specific for Minardi bevause the´ll be running not a new engine but a revised CR-3, that has been rebadged as CR-3L.

Maybe they used an Arrows monocoque because it is lighter??

[oz_ferrari]

New Minardi looks like last years. Wonder what have they learned from the Arrows chasis they've purchased, it's almost as bad as theirs in 2002,
so why don't they just buy more advanced chasis from Jordan or Jaguar instead?
What's that red stuff covering their brakeducts?

Teams must build their own chassis, its currently against the regulations to buy in a chassis. So the Jordan chassis or Jaguar one are out, and this probably precludes running the arrows one too. It would be nice if you could buy all the hardware off the shelf as used to be done. Then perhaps we would see fuller grids.

[Reca]

What's that red stuff covering their brakeducts?

It’s just tape to reduce the area of brake ducts, to regulate the brake cooling. Carbon brakes have a minimum operating temp quite high, too much cooling reduces the efficiency.

This should be an attempt to get a better cooling for the engine, very useful regarding the new regulations.

Why the airbox size is related with engine cooling ?

[Monstrobolaxa]

Reca you're a bad little boy....are you joking with rodlamas?

[Reca]

No, I’m 1.93 m tall so I’m not “little”
Seriously, you mentioned that the airbox looks bigger and he said that it should be to improve cooling. I honestly don’t understand this answer and I asked for an explanation. Maybe he expressed his idea in a bad way or more simply I’ve understood it in the wrong way. No pun intended.

Talking about the car, when you’ll see a lateral view, look closely at the rear wing endplate, the last 100 mm in the lower part. Enigmatic info I know, but I can’t be more precise at the moment.

[Monstrobolaxa]

Well I thought you were joking cause the air box doesn't contribuit that much for cooling....the main idea is to increase the pressure in the engine.....and probably you know that....that's why I asked if you were joking.

[Reca]

That’s why I was perplexed but you know, my ignorance is the only thing I never doubt of, so I asked... isn’t your fault to think it was a joke, I see that it could look as it was. I just wanted to point out it wasn’t my intention.
If Rodlamas would like to expand his thought we can discuss about it, who knows, there’s the possibility that saying airbox he was actually referring to the whole engine cover that is pretty big (the rear edge isn’t a fin like in other cars) and not just to the airbox.

Edit : look at the endplate in Valencia tests in late January on the PS03. In the new car, as far as I’ve seen on tv they made something apparently a bit different but still in the same area. Unfortunately the endplate on the PS04B is black so it’s difficult to say at the moment.
http://www.f1total.com/cgi-bin/g2.pl?gp ... 080_tn.jpg