Formula One car development blog

All teams have been very busy testing their new wheel fairings during the Barcelona test, but Honda have added an extra bit of value to the wheel covers. Essentially, the covers are a carbon fibre shield that helps with the cooling of the front brakes. Marked in the image are on the right an air inlet to accellerate cooling while on the left a small outlet - pic taken from the right of the car.
Despite being very useful, they generally don't sell well to the wide public as they cove... Read more

Almost one year ago and also at a test session at Barcelona, Honda uncovered its RA107 with elephant ears. While the ears were never raced in 2007, they are back on the RA108. Today, Honda showed off a slimmed down version of their ears. The aerofoils are now smaller but extend higher above the nose. It remains to be seen whether it will be used in races this year, but there is a possibility that the FIA will opt against it, either for security reasons or because it hinders the sigh... Read more

Also included with Honda's new aero package was a new mid wing. The newest version is a serious development step for the car as previously, the Honda cars either had no mid wing or displayed a simple, horizontal plane, in fact a design that appeared outdated. The new version is of a totally different kind as it has been optimised to work along the airflow and try to direct air as smooth as possible to the rear wing. The shape varies slightly along the width of the aerofoil while the... Read more

Honda have surprised many with their relatively good pace in qualifying at Australia. Part of that is thanks to a new aeropackage, including this new front wing (upper part). As marked, you can see the base plane is completely revised and is now more edged in the ends and smoother along the spoon shape. The upper element is also redesigned and is of much simpler shape than before. The previous version resembled highly the Ferrari front wing while the new one has no more cuts and is ... Read more

As the new Honda has been testing with its 'viking horns' for a while now (they were quickly fitted after the launch), it is time to have a closer look at them. While it is now the only car with horns, pictured are also McLaren's version of 2006 and from BMW Sauber in 2007. As is clear in the image, the curvature is more rounded now at the outer extremities while the angle of attack is very neutral, similar to McLaren's item. The aerofoils themselves are aimed to stabilise the car u... Read more

Contrary to their philosophy of recent years to lower the nose bit by bit, Honda have taken a totally different road with the RA108. As the 2007 car had much aerodynamic problems and was difficult to extract front downforce, the team have freed up the frontal area to improve front wing efficiency. A higher nose is generally the better option for wing efficiency as it aims not to interfere with the wing's airflow. It must be said that, for a first time really high nose, Honda did a g... Read more

Honda's new team principal Ross Brawn has clearly had his influence in the newest Honda. The knowledge he gathered at Ferrari particularly shows in the sidepod area. Marked in the image are the cut upper edge of the barge boards. Behind the bargeboard and also pointed out is the strong and simple leading edge at the bottom of the sidepod. Honda is however not following the outboard mirror style which appears not to be very favourable due to the higher edges of the cockpits. The RA10... Read more

One peculiar thing on the new RA108 is without a doubt the mounting points of the camera hubs. Various teams have experimented with their position but Honda added a thick connection aerofoil to reduce the aerodynamic impact close to the nose cone. Other than that, the new concept of Honda shows with a completely redesigned front suspension. The thick root of the frontal upper wishbone effectively shortens the movable part of the arm. Also note that a horizontal splitter was added in... Read more