Lola shows off 2010 car

[xpensive]

The sheer competence of this forum's picture-aerodynamicists never cease to impress me.

[jon-mullen]

Another assumption of mine relates to the lack of double deck diffuser. All teams in 2010 will have at least a double-diffuser, and the Lola model clearly shows an "early-2009" style single diffuser. Brawn won 7 of 12 races this year because they had this feature first/best and it took a while for others to catch up on creating and developing double diffusers.

AND because they didn't show the DDD off in press releases prior to its shakedown.

I don't know if this model is Lola's latest and greatest design work for F1, or if they have more up-to-date design concepts that they don't want to show. However, it really is possible to look at the pictures of the model and dismiss it as an outdated dead end.

I'm sure this isn't all they've got up their sleeve. They have zero motivation to show anybody anything, and they've already proven they know how to build racecars. Their LMP1 entry was the best of the petrol-powered cars.

It is nice to have some positive forward-looking press for F1 though.

[SZ]

Looks like a first-take model, no evolution (and they did test for 4+ weeks) that's just there to validate initial CFD investigations.

The basics are in place, but the wheels, tyres and pre-sidepod area tell you a lot about how far evolved they weren't and what key information they were missing.

If you can work out the above you can work out that they don't have a viable design to sell, just the capacity to potentially develop one.

[xpensive]

I beg to differ, if you look at the carefully sculpted head-protections, obviously there to generate some xtra downforce while feeding the rear-wing, it tells me they have a race-ready car in the pipeline.

Not to speak of the deceivingly simplistic front-wing, a lot of thinking gone there.

[SZ]

I beg to differ, if you look at the carefully sculpted head-protections, obviously there to generate some xtra downforce while feeding the rear-wing, it tells me they have a race-ready car in the pipeline.

Not to speak of the deceivingly simplistic front-wing, a lot of thinking gone there.

Are you taking the piss (seriously, are you being sarcastic? I honestly can't work it out.)

[xpensive]

What in the world makes you think so, Ciro would come down like ton of bricks on any sarcasm on this great forum?

[SZ]

Inter-cultural differences in English expression can be hard to pick up in written text, that's all.

But I'd disagree about the Lola being developed (or at least that presentation of it).

There's a lot of copying in the front wing endplates, um, every team has basically either tried pre race 1 or is running a variant of that basic endplate design. No team is running such a simplistic, barely-changed-from-standard-section main front wing element... for good reasons. Every other team has the bits that interact with the endplate (and thus the front wing) - wheel and tyre components - sorted out. They're not using representative tyres (they're not even the right front size for 2010) and they don't have inboard or outboard wheel covers, brake ducts, anything. Teams sort these bits out not just for the car at straight ahead running but through corners, too. Lola has a lot of work yet to do here.

A big, obvious issue is that they don't have representative model tyres. Whatever Bridgestone supplies teams, it's not a carbonfibre cylinder with tread stuck on the top - it's something that has representative deflection. They're not playing at the competitive end at all.

Thus a bigger concern from this is that they clearly don't have tyre data from Bridgestone at this stage. As the dynamic and aerodynamic packages are designed around tyre characteristics, there's some important information they're missing here. Given teams start designing their cars 12-15 months before launch, and the new teams won't have been able to approach Bridgestone for tyre data prior to being confirmed starters, it's some indication of the difficulty the new entrants are facing in getting up to speed.

Putting any severe upwash just upstream of the rear wing (your carefully sculpted 'head-protections') is going to limit rear wing load. They're not carefully sculpted in the slightest. They look like an afterthought.

I'm sure they did more but not having tyre data (let alone development with the right size tyres) is a significant limitation.

[xpensive]

[SZ]

Damn, I fell for it...