My first post: MP4/17 vs MP4/18

[Monstrobolaxa]

I wonder if anyone noticed....but there's a suspension element at the top of the rear suspension.....does anyone know what it is? It can't be a track-rod....cause it seems to me it's centered.....I don't think it's a pushrod because it's placed horizontaly and if it is one....how the hell does it work??? wishbone? I know that 2 years ago the wishbones of the mclaren were made up by 2 diferente parts.....is this the case once again....where one of the parts is placed way up and the other one slightly lower?

[drspeed]

I noticed some unusual features around the rear suspension as well.

My guess is that Mclaren could probably put a multilink suspension instead of wishbones i they have done several times in the past.

OR it could perhaps be Michelin's Optimum Contact Patch suspension system often seen testing by Renault with odd looking black rear wheels and weird looking uprights.

and one thing i slo noticed is that the rear upper wishbone(or suspension elements) attach higher to the rear than in other cars. It could well be an indication of how low the new gearbox is.

[Monstrobolaxa]

I don't think it's the OCP cause I read a couple of weeks ago that only in 2004 other teams besides Renault may use this technology.

[felipezsc]

why didnt they just attach the nose with the wing if it was going to be that low

http://www.f1racing.net/photo_large.php3?ID=19091

[Monstrobolaxa]

seems to me that the second of the 3 wing plates of the front wing is inflenced by the air flow....the same doesn't seem to happen with the third element, which ends before the nose cone. The second wing is complete and goes from one side to the other....this means...that the second wing plate creates downforce! Well that's the way I see it....anyother ideas?

[jooza]

I don't see how the twin keel design works in conjunction with the closed nose. How is this air going to flow between the keels if the nose and frontwing have no space between them?

[walter]

This is a picture of Meclaren's new contender from the top. Check out those air outlets on top of the sidepods.



I know that the location of the exhausts were in discussion before, These new outlets look like they could be the area where the exhausts exit the bodywork. Although they seem to be quite close to the area where the engine should be. If they are the exhausts, they are a little different in their placement from most other teams, where they seem to be further down and out on the cars. Any thoughts?

[drspeed]

IMO, those air outlets seem to be placed directly above the engine head. I still see bits of the exhaust outlet below the rear wing, so i guess it's still there.

BTW, dont you think the rear upper wishbone is attatched on the engine like ferrari?

And those twinkeels and narrow nose... Let's look at this picture



An interesting feature here is that the twin keel layout divides the area between the wheels in to roughly 3 equally wide sections. The keels are mounted very wide so as to use more air from the front to maximise the advantages of this layout. Having seen that the front wings curved up and the nose being very close, as well as the keels extending down to the referance plane, it seems like it works better with undisturbed air. Then there are the areas between the keels and the wheels where air is guided via the curved front wing section and the narrow nose. My guess is that the nose is narrowed so as to channel more air in this area.

[rpm99]

new tendencias in the noses:
http://www.f1racing.net/photo_large.php3?ID=19168
http://www.f1racing.net/photo_large.php3?ID=19163

[rpm99]

toyota also has a ''pierced'' nose


N.M.

[vwsj-Ferrari]

It could be an airflow/pressure sensor of some sort...

[Steven]

ah well.. still when I watch the pictures I get impressed by the way this car is constructed, and how it looks. A front view with the wonderful nose, rear with a switch to diffuser exhausts... hope to see a resemblance next year

Anyway, the heat problems on this car are not just a simple problem. You can see on BAR's CFD's that cooling in the sidepods is mainly done be uncompressing air. Air is then pulled through radiators, and also pulled out of the back of the sidepod. Now the problem here is that there is little space in that sidepod, and as simple as I say it, there's no decompression if ther's no more area available for a certain amount of air.

The problem is very fundamental here, but will have to be solved anyway. More teams will come up with this problem sooner or later, if they want to keep up with the McLaren and reshape their sidepods too...

[NickT]

Looking at the front of the car, the way the wing is mounted and its raised centre section, combined with the wide twin hull. Do you think they are trying to get more air under the wing and onto the floor under the drivers legs?

I think this may do several things:
Recover some of the lost down force through the compromised wing shape and mounting;
Lift more air up from under the wing forcing it up and over/through/around the car;
Create a greater pressure drop under the front of the car and hence more down force;

What do you guys think?

[Monstrobolaxa]

NickT...well for several years I've been thinking about the pressure drop underneth the car....so that the difuser could work better....but....most F1 Tech gurus say that you need alot of air.....!

But...I still disagree.....in nature every thing tends to be even so vacum doesn't exist....my idea was to create the maximum low pressure underneth the car so that the difuser would suck the small amount of air that would speed up the air under the car which woulld cause a sucking efect under the car....which would create even more downforce.....but I still had a couple of doubts about the need of air under the car....well...at least until I got into university....I'm studying aeronautics....with the objective of specializing in aerodynamics....to get into F1.....and....here at the univer...I learned about a fenomenum called STALL....this fenomenum wouldcause the difuser to suddenly lose all its downforce...so my idea of taken almost all the air from the underbody of the car.....disapeared....but there is a optimum quantity of air....and Mclaren might have found it.....