Caterham to use TMG windtunnel
At a meeting held to display the improvements made by Caterham at their Leafield Technical Centre, team principal Cyril Abiteboul revealed the team has upgraded its CFD capacity and will use the TMG windtunnel in 2014, enabling 60% scale model testing.
Caterham F1 has struggled to move up the grid since its entrance in Formula One and have pulled all stops in an attempt to do that now, benefiting from an entirely new set of rules that could mix up the pecking order.
While the team continues to grow, a renewed, uprated partnership with Dell / Intel and the start of the team’s new wind-tunnel program at Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) in Cologne, Germany are major improvements that should enable a higher development rate.
Team Principal Cyril Abiteboul: “Among the news we could share were two very significant deals that will definitely pay dividends for us in 2014 and for years to come – the first being our renewed partnership with Dell / Intel, the second being the migration of our wind-tunnel program to the TMG facility in Germany. The two deals are linked as part of our new deal with Dell / Intel is a major upgrade to our HPC (High Performance Cluster), the supercomputer that powers all our IT needs. We are delighted that Dell / Intel have renewed their support for us as they have been a partner of ours in the truest sense of the word since the first days of the team. Now, amongst numerous other benefits, with the upgrades they are making to our HPC we have a dramatically uprated CFD capability, something which will be particularly important with the rule changes governing wind-tunnel usage in 2014.
“In addition, we are moving our wind-tunnel program to TMG in Germany. The TMG facility allows us to run at 60% scale, more than the 50% scale we have been using to date, and that has obvious benefits in increasing the accuracy of the data generated in the tunnel. Ally that to our increased partnership with Dell / Intel and it’s safe to say our Design Office now has an IT infrastructure and wind tunnel that are on a par with any team in F1.”
Mark Smith, Technical Director, Caterham F1 Team: “Over the last year significant investments have been made across the team which put us in the strongest position we’ve been in since the team first started in 2009. In addition to our new wind tunnel program at TMG and our uprated HPC, through our renewed partnership with Dell / Intel, we have continued to invest in our human resource and welcomed a number of new people who are have all immediately made major contributions to key areas of the team. Among the main structural changes we made last year was promoting Jody Egginton to Deputy Technical Director and welcoming Hari Roberts who joined us in early 2013 as Head of Aerodynamics. Late last year we also had Paul Cusdin join us at Leafield as Head of CFD to strengthen our CFD team, an appointment that will help us maximise the value of the renewed partnership with have with Dell / Intel. The ongoing support of our shareholders and our partners has helped us reach the strong position we now enjoy, and further progress, in terms of personnel, resource and infrastructure, will be made throughout the year ahead.”
Caterham Group Co-Chairman, Tony Fernandes also mentioned that the new season and progress will be adjoined by a new branding across the entire Caterham Group, including a new logo inspired by the British Union Flag.
“One change that will be immediately obvious is the introduction of our version of the Union Flag to all our brand platforms", Fernandes said. "This is our Caterham coloured Union Flag emblem and it is our celebration of Caterham’s British heritage. The Caterham brand has been in existence for over 40 years, and, in simple terms, is a brand that puts smiles on people’s faces. It is a proud British brand, one that celebrates Britain’s engineering prowess, and we, in turn, are proud to showcase our British heritage."
Caterham is gearing up for the Jerez test that is to start on 28 January with the team unveiling its new car just ahead of the start of on-track action.
