2012 Car Comparison Thread

[dave34m]

Very shallow RW for the RB8,

Look at the front wing, the RB8 is much lower than the M4-27.

[bhallg2k]

Let's complete the comparison with a look at the 2012 offerings from Marussia and HRT.

Marussa


HRT

[dice782]

Look at the HRT F112's front wing is much lower then the MR-03's.

[MIKEY_!]

That seems to be even more wing flex than the RB8. I think we have a race winner here!

[raymondu999]

Very shallow RW for the RB8,

[img]http://www.formula1.com/wi/sutton/2011/dcd1222fe70.jpg[img]

What I find somewhat interesting is that the RB8 approach uses a wing that's basically a slanted airfoil with the flap and the main plane at the same angle. The McLaren seems a bit more "L" shaped; where there is an angle between the main plane and the flap.

[TRICKLE69]

Nose of 2012:

Why is it that the Ferrari nose is the shortest and the only car where the nose is shorter than the front wing?

[MIKEY_!]

Williams had it last year, Lotus had it in 2010 and Toyota in 2009. It's not uncommon, although it seems to appear only on slow cars. I think it reduces interference between the nose and wing. Seems strange when they were so far apart on all the cars mentioned.

[volarchico]

Very shallow RW for the RB8,

[img]http://www.formula1.com/wi/sutton/2011/dcd1222fe70.jpg[img]

What I find somewhat interesting is that the RB8 approach uses a wing that's basically a slanted airfoil with the flap and the main plane at the same angle. The McLaren seems a bit more "L" shaped; where there is an angle between the main plane and the flap.

I think it's more down to the camber of the airfoil. In that one shot, the McL has a higher camber (more curved) wing so that by the time you get to the flap it's more vertical, whereas the RB is low camber so the entire setup is more flat.

Edit: typo

[raymondu999]

Or maybe RBR have gotten to a point where adding downforce actually makes a slower laptime by virtue of the added drag... And so have opted for such a wing. Of course in turn it would mean they probably aren't as flexible in terms of setting the car up by the rear wing's downforce levels.

[N12ck]

Very shallow RW for the RB8,

Look at the front wing, the RB8 is much lower than the M4-27.

who is to say that mclaren could have been on a 'cooling down' lap and was simply getting out of the way and going slow, you cant get anything from this image IMO

[raymondu999]

To be fair it's mid corner - if the front wing is going to be close to the ground due to rake; it will probably be here too.

[ovidiulucaci]

2012 Cars
I have made some measurements based on the front rim diameter and the article from f1 regulation manual (12.4.4 Wheel bead diameter must lie between 328 and 332mm).
I have taken 330mm as default rim diameter to all cars.

There is a better scale length that I used last year. The regs specify a fixed dimension from front of the front wing to the front axle. It is roughly 1000, so that would give more accurate scaling. You need to use the leading edge of the nearside endplate to the centre of the wheel as they are roughly in the same plane.

Is better now?

[ovidiulucaci]

...and another scale comparison between F2012, RB8, W03.
Is not an accurate dimension, but we can figure out the proportion of the cars.

[bhallg2k]

It's like someone put them in a dryer on high heat: they shrank!

[allstaruk08]

the cars are turning in so surely the wheel centre points will be back a bit from the neutral steering position which will make the number smaller