Williams FW31

[Diesel]

Wow two very different nose cones there... could the big one purely be ballast?

[xpensive]

I doubt if the high nose in front of the wheel centerline would be the preferable location for ballast.

[Diesel]

No I meant maybe the first nose was full of ballast which dictated it's size, the new nose doesn't have much if any ballast in it so they were able to make it smaller and maybe better for aero? Just some thoughts...

[jwielage]

Quote xpensive
I doubt if the high nose in front of the wheel centerline would be the preferable location for ballast.

This is an interesting point regarding the Williams nose. However this may shed some light on the Renault's nose cone, which appears to be lower. To the extent that this nose holds balast (which I read somewhere that it does) it seems unlikely that it is a decoy, as you would think that a car is developed around its weight distribution.

Does this make sense ?

[boci]

Guess I forgot the magic word in all this excitement, what I ment to say was of course that I THINK the boxy-nose is a decoy, sorry about that gentlemen.

But I believe there is something more to this anyway, certainly after a posting on another thread of a Renault with a much sleeker nose. The box-job could also be a temporary result of the failed crash-test or whatever, but on the grid in March? Näää...

The animated picture of the Renault with a sleek nose is how the R28 would look if it was under the 2009 rules. They made it just to show their fans the general shape of the cars next year.

[xpensive]

When the Renault with the pointed nose looks neither animated or anything like last years car, to my stupid eyes anyway, I still prefer to belive that the box-job is a temporary solution to a screwed-up crash-test or two.

Could be the same with the FW31, anyone knows the rules on those tests?

[axle]

Renault think the FW31 is quick...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73051

[pipex]

I don't want to get excited too early with the FW31, but i really wish that they have a winning car...

[djos]

While I hope Webbo in his RB5 (+ boy wonder) are at the pointy end this year, I would also like to see Williams return to form - the Williams FlyBrid system is truly elegant!

[tk421]

was going to comment on the diffusor situation but lo and behold, twas in another thread.....what a great post!

[vasia]

Very elegant and interesting design, upper portions of sidepods are sculpted in a similar fashion to BMW's F1.09.

Very interesting rear diffuser design; along with the TF109 these two cars have the most interesting rear end designs.

At this stage the FW31 looks very competitive. The only question is how much will Williams be able to keep up with the top teams in terms of car development during the season? Given that the regulation changes are so vast, there will be great progress and development potential during the course of the season. The teams with the most resources will have the best opportunity to seize this potential.

[WhiteBlue]

A lot will depend off their new KERS system. I think that use of KERS in qualifying will be decisive. If KERS make you 0.3 s faster you can hardly afford not to have it for Q3. Often the winner is decided by a much smaller gap.

[vasia]

I believe KERS will not make a difference until the very end of the season, even if then. I simply see too many problems with KERS during most of the season. Even BMW seems to be backtracking in terms of it's KERS usage. KERS will add straight-line speed; it won't really help in cornering speed. At this point there are too many unknowns with KERS to say it will be decisive. Williams' KERS implementation though seems to possibly be the most elegant one.

[Callum]

I dont know if this has been posted, it's about their KERS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04CarbWx ... re=related

[ESPImperium]

Williams have bee testing the new nose again:



Massive improvement over the launch one i think.