Formula One car development blog

Ever since the beginning of the season, actually even during winter testing, BMW Sauber have been running extremely bulky and simple front wing endplates. At first we thought they were just for testing purposes, but the items stayed there far too long, until the Singapore GP.

There, the F1.09 was raced with a far more complex endplate, much resembling the Brawn GP and Force India versions. The combination of two panels with a separate vertical element to support the stacked elements... Read more

BMW introduced a major development step on its car at Valencia, and the results were immediately there. The single point of Robert Kubica may not seem much, but at Bahrain there were still miles and miles away in the back of the field, while now Kubica could fight Webber, a race winner this year.

BMW Sauber decided gambled with KERS and failed badly, hence they decided to ditch it alltogether. The result now is a lighter chassis and much more sculpted sidepods. The team redesigned t... Read more

BMW Sauber have introduced another update to the F1.09's front wing. Now that the team is completely focused on improving the aerodynamics of the car after ditching KERS, all parts have evolved from being simple to less simple. To no avail it appears though, as BMW was again in a troubled position during the British GP weekend.

The updates however include a new endplate which is slightly bent, allow a little more air to be accellerated under the front wing rather than pushed around ... Read more

BMW Sauber have taken a long time to design and manufacture a double decker diffuser to replace the more conventional one that followed 'the spirit of the rules'. The new version immediately proved effective as Robert Kubica was there within the points, while in Bahrain they were no where near the midfield.

The new diffuser resembles much that of Brawn with an empty keel structure in the middle and an early exit above it for additional downforce. It also pick up an idea of Toyota by... Read more

BMW Sauber finally introduced a major aerodynamic upgrade at Spain after struggling badly in the initial stages of the season. Already before the first Grand Prix, the team found the car's airflow around and onto the sidepods. The front end of the sidepod in particular was worrisome as it caused varying air pressure underneath the car and hence unpredictable downforce levels. An interim solution slightly helped, until now the team redesigned the complete front.

First of all, the sid... Read more

BMW Sauber are in trouble, and as a result are focusing towards quickly improving the car with as little effort as possible. What better was is there than to copy another team's working idea and implement something similar. BMW brought at Barcelona a major aerodynamic upgrade package, including a rear wing with the marked additional flap on the central 150mm. It exploits an idea from Toyota that is now also used by Ferrari. The additional wing elements allow for higher efficiency in... Read more

Strangely, the more you seem to look at the F1.09, the more louvers, also known as shark gills - you discover. I have already reported about the little outlets close to the car's floor, but there is a series or openings just aside of the head protection bumps on the car's body. Being located so close to the car's centre line, this falls just within the regulations.

Article 3.8.4 states (among other notices) that no openings are allowed in "the volume between the rear face of the coc... Read more

The new BMW Sauber has been developed in two phases. A first one that started very early was a project of evaluating different solutions for pretty much everything about the car. Then, after choosing the better solution, the component is developed and fitted onto the car for evaluation.

The nose section of the new F1.09 underwent the same development procedure in which the team found that the wide nose worked best with the new front wing. Obviously BMW have done their homework rathe... Read more

BMW Sauber's newly launched F1.09 features an interesting solution to provide cooling in the sidepods. It is already a wide known fact that openings other than the exhaust exit are forbidden on the sidepod shell, but the team of Hinwill managed is exploring the edges of legality. Just above the car's floor, the team added a very small series of louvers to provide an exit for hot radiator air.