Force India design McLaren-ish sidepod panel

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The team's takeover by Vijay Mallya during the winter has certainly proved to have its effect on the development of the car. While the launched car did not have much new bits, the version of the VJM-01 that made the track debut did. First off, the team looked closely to what McLaren have been doing with their sidepod panels and therefore also elongated the panel onto the sidepod to connect to the chimney. The element is also very similar to Williams' design. Additionally, the car has a pretty much angled aerofoil ahead of the sidepod air intake, most certainly designed to help cooling the engine. It is however still remarkable that the team sticks with the tiny barge boards, making it the only one to have such a design after Toyota abandoned the idea.




Comments

By teecof1fan on 29-02-2008 at 02:54

Last year\'s Spyker/this year\'s winter-testing VJM-01 had very long and narrow sidepod shieldsfor the whole season (http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/photolarge.ph ... catID=3045). I guess that design didn\'t work well with the aero overhaul they completed for the new car...


By Giblet on 01-03-2008 at 08:16

The small/nonexistent barge boards are not a Toyota/Force India thing, they are a Gascoyne thing.

Toyota slapped barge boards on their car as soon as he left, IIRC.


By Steven on 02-03-2008 at 23:30

Well teecof1fan, don\'t underestimate the length of the sidepod panel. It may be as long as the previous design is in the pic you referred to. It\'s probably just an improvement rather than fixing a problem.

As for the bargeboards, Gascoyne is a pretty good engineer but I think he is wrong in this area. If he believes he can outsmart Ferrari, McLaren and all other teams alltogether then I\'m afraid he\'s facing a disappointment ;)


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